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Impact of Land-Applied Tertiary-Treated Effluent on Soil Biochemical Properties

Landcare Research NZ Ltd, Private Bag 3127, Hamilton, New Zealand;

T. W. Speir

ESR, Lower Hurt, New Zealand.

^* Corresponding author (schipperl{at}landcare.cri.nz).

ABSTRACT

Land application is increasingly used for the disposal and treatment of effluents. We investigated how irrigation of tertiary-treated domestic effluent influenced 14 soil biochemical properties in a Monterey pine (Pinus radiata D. Don) forest on volcanic soils. The soils were irrigated with either effluent or water at two loading rates (49 and 74 mm wk^–1). Surface soils (0–5 cm) were collected from the effluent-irrigated and adjacent nonirrigated control sites annually for 3 yr and for 2 yr from the water-irrigated sites. Effluent irrigation significantly (P < 0.05) increased several soil properties including pH, invertase activity, denitrification, mineralizable N, and extractable nitrate. These increases were not observed in the water-irrigated soils suggesting that the changes resulted from effluent chemistry rather than additional water loading. Phosphatase activity decreased with both water- and effluent-irrigation. No changes were observed in total N, total C, basal respiration, microbial biomass, sulfatase activity, or extractable ammonium in the effluent- and water-irrigated soils. Both rates of effluent application had the same effect on soil properties indicating that the threshold rate that changed soil properties was 49 mm of effluent per week.

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