A global meta-analysis reveals effects of heavy metals on soil microorganisms

IF 11.3 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENGINEERING, ENVIRONMENTAL

Journal of Hazardous Materials Pub Date : 2025-03-23 DOI:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2025.138018

Dale Li, Xiujuan Zhang, Hong Zhang, Qirui Fan, Baobei Guo, Junjian Li

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Abstract

Heavy metal (HM) contamination disrupts soil ecosystem functions. Microorganisms are pivotal for sustaining soil health, but accurately assessing the ecological risks of HM contamination to microorganisms remains challenging. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis synthesizing 914 datasets from 72 studies to quantify and evaluate the impacts of HMs on microorganisms. The overall effect value results indicate that HM negatively impacts most microbiological indicators, with bacterial abundance (-38%), fungal abundance (-18%), microbial biomass carbon (-42%), microbial biomass nitrogen (-44%), arylsulfatase (-45%) and dehydrogenase activity (-66%) were significantly reduced (p < 0.01), suggesting they can act as sensitivity indicators for assessing ecological risk of microorganisms. Compared to bacteria, fungal indicators (e.g., fungal community structure and Shannon index) are less responsive to HM contamination. At low potential ecological risk index (RI < 150), HM contamination positively impacted certain microbial indicators, such as fungal abundance, fungal Shannon index, and β-glucosidase activity. With increasing RI levels, the negative effects of HMs on microorganisms became more pronounced. Microbiological indicators in acidic soils (pH < 6.5), coarse textured soils, and mining soils were more negatively affected by HMs. Random forest and structural equation modeling analysis also identified RI levels and pH as crucial factors in determining the microbial response to HMs. Adjusted RI (adRI) were calculated using adjusted toxicity factors (adTF). The adRI demonstrated stronger correlations with microbial indicators and lower root-mean-square error (RMSE) in the random forest model than the RI, indicating that adTF is a more effective method for evaluating the effects of HMs on microorganisms. This study enhances the accuracy of quantifying and assessing HM impacts on microorganisms, offering crucial scientific basis for environmental protection and soil remediation.

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全球荟萃分析揭示重金属对土壤微生物的影响

重金属（HM）污染会破坏土壤生态系统的功能。微生物是维持土壤健康的关键，但准确评估重金属污染对微生物的生态风险仍具有挑战性。在此，我们对 72 项研究的 914 个数据集进行了荟萃分析，以量化和评估 HMs 对微生物的影响。总体效应值结果表明，HMs 对大多数微生物指标有负面影响，细菌丰度（-38%）、真菌丰度（-18%）、微生物生物量碳（-42%）、微生物生物量氮（-44%）、芳基硫酸酯酶（-45%）和脱氢酶活性（-66%）显著降低（p <0.01），表明它们可以作为评估微生物生态风险的敏感性指标。与细菌相比，真菌指标（如真菌群落结构和香农指数）对 HM 污染的反应较小。在潜在生态风险指数（RI < 150）较低时，HM 污染会对某些微生物指标（如真菌丰度、真菌香农指数和 β-葡萄糖苷酶活性）产生积极影响。随着 RI 水平的增加，HMs 对微生物的负面影响变得更加明显。酸性土壤（pH 值为 6.5）、粗纹理土壤和采矿土壤中的微生物指标受 HMs 的负面影响更大。随机森林和结构方程建模分析也确定了 RI 水平和 pH 值是决定微生物对 HMs 反应的关键因素。使用调整毒性因子（adTF）计算了调整 RI（adRI）。与 RI 相比，adRI 与微生物指标的相关性更强，在随机森林模型中的均方根误差（RMSE）更低，表明 adTF 是评估 HMs 对微生物影响的更有效方法。这项研究提高了量化和评估有害有机物对微生物影响的准确性，为环境保护和土壤修复提供了重要的科学依据。

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来源期刊

Journal of Hazardous Materials 工程技术-工程：环境

CiteScore

25.40

自引率

5.90%

发文量

3059

审稿时长

58 days

期刊介绍： The Journal of Hazardous Materials serves as a global platform for promoting cutting-edge research in the field of Environmental Science and Engineering. Our publication features a wide range of articles, including full-length research papers, review articles, and perspectives, with the aim of enhancing our understanding of the dangers and risks associated with various materials concerning public health and the environment. It is important to note that the term "environmental contaminants" refers specifically to substances that pose hazardous effects through contamination, while excluding those that do not have such impacts on the environment or human health. Moreover, we emphasize the distinction between wastes and hazardous materials in order to provide further clarity on the scope of the journal. We have a keen interest in exploring specific compounds and microbial agents that have adverse effects on the environment.