Municipal solid wastes as a resource for environmental recovery: impact of water treatment residuals and compost on the microbial and biochemical features of As and trace metal-polluted soils

In this study we evaluated the microbiological and biochemical impact of iron-based water treatment residuals (Fe-WTRs) and municipal solid waste compost (MSWC), alone and combined, on three different soils co-contaminated with arsenic (As) and trace-metals (TM), i.e. Pb, Cu and Zn. Overall, all the amendments considered significantly increased the abundance of culturable heterotrophic bacteria, with MSWC showing the greatest impact across all soils (up to a 24% increase). In most of treated soils this was accompanied by a significant reduction of both the (culturable) fungal/bacterial ratio, and the proportion of culturable As(V)- and As(III)- resistant bacteria with respect to total bacterial population. The catabolic potential and versatility of the resident microbial communities (assessed by community level physiological profile) was highly soil-dependent and substantial increases of both parameters were observed in the amended soils with the higher total As concentration (from approx. 749 to 22,600 mg kg−1 ). Moreover, both carbon source utilisation profile and 16S rRNA soil metagenome sequencing indicated a significant impact of MSWC and Fe-WTRs on the structure and diversity of soil microbial communities, with Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Firmicutes being the most affected taxa. The assessment of selected soil enzyme activities (dehydrogenase, urease and β-glucosidase) indicated an increase of metabolic functioning especially in soils treated with MSWC (e.g. dehydrogenase activity increased up to 19.5-fold in the most contaminated soil treated with MSWC). Finally, the microbial and biochemical features of treated (and untreated) contaminated soils (i.e. total bacterial counts, catabolic potential and versatility and soil enzyme activities) were highly correlated with the concentrations of labile As and TM in these latter soils and supported a clear role of the tested amendments (especially MSWC) as As- and TM-immobilising agents.