Effect of arsenic contamination on bacterial and fungal biomass and enzyme activities in tropical arsenic-contaminated soils

The importance of assessing the impacts of soil arsenic (As) contamination on microbial properties lay on the fact that microbes are instrumental in nutrient cycling and are therefore indicators of soil quality. In this study, soil chemical extraction methods were used to extract labile and freely exchangeable As (water-soluble As and sodium bicarbonate-extractable As), amorphous/crystalline Fe and Mn oxide-bound As (acid ammonium oxalate-extractable As and hydroxylamine hydrochloride-extractable As), and their impacts on microbial biomass (microbial biomass C, total bacterial and fungal biomass, active bacterial and fungal biomass), enzyme activities representing four major soil biogeochemical cycles, i.e., C (β-glucosidase activity), N (urease activity), P (acid phosphomonoesterase activity), S (acryl-sulfatase activity), and microbial activity (fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis and dehydrogenase activity) were investigated in As-contaminated soils of Ambagarh Chauki block, Chhattisgarh, Central India. The results revealed that the majority of the As in soils resided in the Fe/Mn oxide-bound fraction. The microbial biomass C, total and active fungal biomass, and enzyme activities were significantly inhibited by all the forms of As. However, water-soluble As, even though occupying only a small portion of the total As (0.9–2.9 %), exerted the greatest impact. Interestingly, total and active bacterial biomass was not significantly affected by As toxicity, suggesting their resistance to As. Urease activity was not affected by As pollution.