Soil microbiomes divergently respond to heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in contaminated industrial sites

Abstract

Contaminated sites from electronic waste (e-waste) dismantling and coking plants feature high concentrations of heavy metals (HMs) and/or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil. Mixed contamination (HMs + PAHs) hinders land reclamation and affects the microbial diversity and function of soil microbiomes. In this study, we analyzed HM and PAH contamination from an e-waste dismantling plant and a coking plant and evaluated the influences of HM and PAH contamination on soil microbiomes. It was noticed that HMs and PAHs were found in all sites, although the major contaminants of the e-waste dismantling plant site were HMs (such as Cu at 5,947.58 ± 433.44 mg kg−1, Zn at 4,961.38 ± 436.51 mg kg−1, and Mn at 2,379.07 ± 227.46 mg kg−1), and the major contaminants of the coking plant site were PAHs (such as fluorene at 11,740.06 ± 620.1 mg kg−1, acenaphthylene at 211.69 ± 7.04 mg kg−1, and pyrene at 183.14 ± 18.89 mg kg−1). The microbiomes (diversity and abundance) of all sites were determined via high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes, and redundancy analysis was conducted to investigate the relations between soil microbiomes and contaminants. The results showed that the microbiomes of the contaminated sites divergently responded to HMs and PAHs. The abundances of the bacterial genera Sulfuritalea, Pseudomonas, and Sphingobium were positively related to PAHs, while the abundances of the bacterial genera Bryobacter, Nitrospira, and Steroidobacter were positively related to HMs. This study promotes an understanding of how soil microbiomes respond to single and mixed contamination with HMs and PAHs.