HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Díaz-Raviña, M. Articles by Bååth, E. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Díaz-Raviña, M. Articles by Bååth, E. Agricola Articles by Díaz-Raviña, M. Articles by Bååth, E. Related Collections Soil Microbiology Ecological Risk Assessment Heavy Metals Other Environmental Contamination Soil Pollution

TECHNICAL REPORTS

Ecological Risk Assessment

Tolerance (PICT) of the Bacterial Communities to Copper in Vineyards Soils from Spain

^a Instituto de Investigaciones Agrobiológicas de Galicia (CSIC), Avda Vigo s/n, Apartado 122, E-15780 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
^b Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Departamento de Edafología y Química Agrícola, Facultad de Biología, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
^c Dep. of Microbial Ecology, Lund Univ., Ecology Building, SE- 223 62 Lund, Sweden

^* Corresponding author (mdiazr{at}iiag.cesga.es).

Received for publication November 2, 2006. To detect effects of Cu pollution, the Cu tolerance of soil bacterial communities extracted from several vineyards located in NW Spain was measured. Bacterial community tolerance was estimated by means of the thymidine (TdR) and leucine (Leu) incorporation techniques using either IC₅₀ values (the log of the metal concentration that reduced incorporation to 50%) or the percentage of activity at one specific Cu concentration (10^–6 mol L^–1). The tolerance measurements by the TdR incorporation technique were similar to those obtained by the Leu incorporation method, indicating that the two methods were equivalent in terms of suitability for detecting the toxicity of Cu to soil bacterial communities. The two tolerance indices considered (IC₅₀ values and percentage of activity) were closely correlated (r = 0.975, P < 0.001), showing that both were equally good in measuring Cu tolerance of the bacterial community. An increased bacterial community tolerance to Cu, indicating a pollution effect, was observed in vineyard soils with more than 100 mg Cu kg^–1 soil. Thus, the long-term use of Cu in vineyards has a toxic effect on the soil bacterial community, resulting in an increased tolerance. An effect of increased levels of Cu could not be detected when measuring bacterial community activity, pointing to the increased sensitivity to detect toxicity in field studies using tolerance measurements.