Evaluation of respiratory activity of albic luvisol contaminated by zinc and nickel during spring rapeseed cultivation

In almost all industrially developed regions of the Russian Federation, the soil is contaminated with heavy metals (HM) often in concentrations which exceed limits of safety. This contamination causes degradation of agricultural land, which underlines the importance of the complex continuous monitoring of the dynamics of on-going changes in urban ecosystems against the background of natural processes. Quantitative assessment of the environmental sustainability of the soil according to the biological indicators of its condition is of enormous importance, in particular the balance of microbial carbon in soils, which are under varying degrees of anthropogenic pressure. Experiments were carried out to determine the phytoremediation potential of the spring rapeseed plants on soil contaminated with heavy metals. The aim of the study was to assess the respiratory activity of albic luvisol at different levels of its contamination with zinc and nickel under the conditions of a growing experiment with spring rapeseed plants. The experimental data on the respiratory activity of soil artificially contaminated with zinc and nickel in the dose range of 400-800 and 30-60 mg kg-1 of soil respectively, showed that microbial activity had a strong positive correlation with the presence of spring rapeseed plants in the vessels and weak correlation on the presence of toxic elements in the soil. According to the respiratory activity of albic luvisol, it was found that in the first 13 days of vegetation, cultivation of spring rapeseed plants had a positive effect on the sustainability of soil microbiocenosis to complex pollution with zinc and nickel.