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Sanitary landfill improved CNPS microbial functional gene abundance compared to non-sanitary landfill

  • Soils, Sec 1 • Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Nutrient Cycling • Research Article
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Abstract

Purpose

The landfill soil microbes related to nutrient cycling, such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and sulfur (S) cycling, are changed by continuous waste decomposition. Monitoring the changes that occur in CNPS functional genes in different types of landfill cover soils as a whole is vital to our understanding of microbial function in element cycling.

Materials and methods

The high-throughput quantitative polymerase chain reaction–based chip (HT-Q-PCR) method was used to explore differences in the abundance of 71 CNPS functional genes in cover soils (0–20 cm, 20–40 cm, and 40–60 cm) from two types of landfills (sanitary and non-sanitary) and to examine the soil pH and the concentrations of C, N, P, S, and 6 heavy metals.

Results and discussion

The absolute abundances of CNPS functional genes varied greatly, with the highest gene abundance reaching 5.28 × 109 copies per gram of soil, and 11% (8/71) of the genes not detected. Among the detected genes, there was a much higher functional gene abundance in the sanitary landfill than in the non-sanitary landfill cover soils, and the difference in gene abundance became more significant with increasing sampling depth. In addition to landfill type and sampling depth, the soil pH, soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC), available N (AN), and available S (AS) correlated significantly to functional gene abundance. Conversely, soil heavy metals, such as Cu, Cd, Cr, Zn, and Ni, had no effects on functional gene abundance, which might be due to their low contents.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that sanitary landfill increases soil CNPS gene abundance compared to that of non-sanitary landfill. The findings provide suggestions for landfill treatment and ecological protection, especially regarding vegetation restoration.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Shanghai Finance Special Project (Soil quality monitoring system for typical urban green spaces in Shanghai) and the National Key R & D Program of China (2016YFC0502704).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Ecological Landsca** of Challenging Urban Sites, Shanghai Academy of Landscape Architecture Science and Planning, Shanghai, 200232, People’s Republic of China

    Yuzhen Luo, Weiwei Zhang & Jigang Han

  2. Ningbo Urban Environment Observation and Research Station (NUEORS), Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, 315800, People’s Republic of China

    Yuzhen Luo, Yaying Li & Huaiying Yao

  3. College of Food Science and Technology, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 200120, People’s Republic of China

    Yuzhen Luo & Yongjie Wang

  4. Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Landsca** on Challenging Urban Sites, Shanghai, 200232, People’s Republic of China

    Yuzhen Luo, Weiwei Zhang & Jigang Han

  5. School of Environmental Ecology and Biological Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan, 430205, People’s Republic of China

    Huaiying Yao

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  1. Yuzhen Luo
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  2. Weiwei Zhang
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  3. Yaying Li
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Correspondence to Huaiying Yao or Jigang Han.

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Luo, Y., Zhang, W., Li, Y. et al. Sanitary landfill improved CNPS microbial functional gene abundance compared to non-sanitary landfill. J Soils Sediments 20, 99–108 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-019-02426-z

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