Communities of microscopic fungi in contaminated and reference Al-Fe-humus podzols and their influence on copper mobility

The transformation of microscopic fungi communities under the impact of contamination, the influence of environmental conditions (soil temperature and moisture) on the development of fungal communities in the course of model successions and on the copper mobility in soil, and the most favorable conditions for copper mobilization were studied in Al-Fe-humus podzols of the Kola peninsula contaminated with heavy metals (Cu and Ni). The long-term aerotechnogenic contamination affects the structure of the microbial communities; the species diversity of the communities can somewhat increase at the expense of the increasing diversity of rare, atypical, and “weed” species and decreasing numbers of dominants. The dynamics of fungal communities are less expressed in the contaminated soils as compared with the reference soils. The conditions of rather low temperature (5°C) and an increased moisture content (120% of the field water capacity) are the most favorable for mycelium growth and copper mobilization. Such conditions are typical of the soils in the studied region. Hence, there is a possibility for the soil self-purification due to gradual mobilization of the copper and its subsequent leaching.