Effects of steam sterilization on soil abiotic and biotic properties
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25674/so92iss2pp99Keywords:
microbial biomass, nematodes, plant-available phosphorus, plant-available potassium, soil biodiversityAbstract
Experiments under natural conditions are becoming increasingly important to investigate the impacts of global change on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, but field experiments are not always feasible. Climate or biodiversity chamber experiments can be an alternative, which, however, require large amounts of soil substrate. If only low amounts of target soil are available, high quantities of background soil must be sterilized and inoculated with target soil. One of the commonly used methods to sterilize large amounts of background soil is steam sterilization, because it is simple, fast and cheap. However, there is a lack of knowledge, whether steam sterilization is an effective method to completely eliminate all organisms in the soil (in particular heat-resistant organisms) as well as if and how it alters soil abiotic conditions like nutrient concentrations. Therefore, we tested which organisms survived the sterilization treatment and if the effectiveness can be improved by repeated steam sterilization. Additionally, we checked whether steam sterilization changes soil pH, carbon and nutrient concentrations, and whether this is strengthened by a double sterilization treatment. To study this, we steam-sterilized 2 m3 sand-soil mix (1:4) for 150 min, stored it for 12 days at ambient temperature (for the germination of heat-resistant organisms) and repeated the sterilization procedure. We found a 27 % reduction in microbial biomass carbon after the first sterilization treatment and a 51 % reduction after the second sterilization treatment compared to untreated soil. Nematodes were almost completely eliminated (97 % after second treatment), while rotifers largely remained unchanged. Soil pH and plant-available phosphorus concentration increased after the first sterilization treatment (pH: from 7.44 to 7.79; phosphorus: +28 %). Phosphorus concentration increased further after the second sterilization treatment (+53 % compared to untreated soil), while pH remained unchanged (7.77). Plant-available potassium and total carbon concentrations decreased after the first treatment (potassium: -19 %; carbon: -5 %), while total carbon further decreased (-8 % compared to untreated soil) and potassium remained unchanged after the second treatment. Taken together, our study highlights that (single and double) steam-sterilization treatments were only partially effective, i.e. non-complete elimination of soil organisms, and additionally influenced soil properties. Nevertheless, steam sterilization is a fast and cost-effective alternative to other sterilization methods, especially when large amounts of soil substrate are needed. Therefore, if so, we recommend to use steam sterilization, but to sterilize the soil twice to significantly reduce the number of soil organisms, and further consider potential side effects, such as an increase in plant-available phosphorous concentration.
Downloads
References
Bååth, E. & K. Arnebrant (1994): Growth rate and response of bacterial communities to pH in limed and ash treated forest soils. – Soil Biology and Biochemistry 26: 995–1001.
Berns, A., H. Philipp, H. D. Narres, P. Burauel, H. Vereecken & W. Tappe (2008): Effect of gamma‐sterilization and autoclaving on soil organic matter structure as studied by solid state NMR, UV and fluorescence spectroscopy. – European Journal of Soil Science 59: 540–550.
Blankinship, J. C., P. A. Niklaus & B. A. Hungate (2011): A meta-analysis of responses of soil biota to global change. – Oecologia 165: 553–565.
Blume, H.-P., H. W. Brümmer, R. Horn, E. Kandeler, I. Kögel-Knabner, R. Kretzschmar, K. Stahr & B.-M. Wilke (2016): Scheffer/Schachtschabel: Lehrbuch der Bodenkunde, Vol. 16. – Springer-Verlag: 569 pp.
Bongers, T. (1988): De nematoden van Nederland: een identificatietabel voor de in Nederland aangetroffen zoetwater-en bodembewonende nematoden. – Stichting Uitgeverij Koninklijke Nederlandse Natuurhistorische Vereniging: 408 pp.
Cesarz, S., A. E. Schulz, R. Beugnon & N. Eisenhauer (2019): Testing soil nematode extraction efficiency using different variations of the Baermann-funnel method. – Soil Organisms 91: 61–72.
Eisenhauer, N. & M. Türke (2018): From climate chambers to biodiversity chambers. – Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 16: 136–137.
Eisenhauer, N., J. Hines, F. Isbell, F. Van der Plas, S. E. Hobbie, C. E. Kazanski, A. Lehmann, M. Liu, A. Lochner & M. C. Rillig (2018): Plant diversity maintains multiple soil functions in future environments. – ELife 7: e41228.
Endlweber, K. & S. Scheu (2006): Establishing arbuscular mycorrhiza-free soil: a comparison of six methods and their effects on nutrient mobilization. – Applied Soil Ecology 34: 276–279.
Frostegård, Å., A. Tunlid & E. Bååth (1991): Microbial biomass measured as total lipid phosphate in soils of different organic content. – Journal of Microbiological Methods 14: 151–163.
McCauley, A., C. Jones & J. Jacobsen (2009): Soil pH and organic matter. – Nutrient management module 8: 1–12.
McSorley, R., K. Wang, N. Kokalis-Burelle & G. Church (2006): Effects of soil type and steam on nematode biological control potential of the rhizosphere community. – Nematropica 36: 197–214.
Murphy, J. & J. P. Riley (1962): A modified single solution method for the determination of phosphate in natural waters. – Analytica chimica acta 27: 31–36.
Naeem, S., L. J. Thompson, S. P. Lawler, J. H. Lawton & R. M. Woodfin (1994): Declining biodiversity can alter the performance of ecosystems. – Nature 368: 734–737.
Olsen, S. R. (1954) Estimation of available phosphorus in soils by extraction with sodium bicarbonate. – US Department of Agriculture.
Roscher, C., J. Schumacher, J. Baade,W. Wilcke, G. Gleixner, W. W. Weisser, B. Schmid & E.-D. Schulze (2004): The role of biodiversity for element cycling and trophic interactions: an experimental approach in a grassland community. – Basic and Applied Ecology 5: 107–121.
Ruess, L. (1995): Studies on the nematode fauna of an acid forest soil: spatial distribution and extraction. – Nematologica 41: 229–239.
Scheu, S. (1992): Automated measurement of the respiratory response of soil microcompartments: active microbial biomass in earthworm faeces. – Soil Biology and Biochemistry 24: 1113–1118.
Serrasolses, I., J. Romanyà & P. Khanna (2008): Effects of heating and autoclaving on sorption and desorption of phosphorus in some forest soils. – Biology and Fertility of Soils 44: 1063–1072.
Sharpley, A. N. (1989): Relationship between soil potassium forms and mineralogy. – Soil Science Society of America Journal 53: 1023–1028.
Singh, B. & K. W. T. Goulding (1997): Changes with time in the potassium content and phyllosilicates in the soil of the Broadbalk continuous wheat experiment at Rothamsted. – European Journal of Soil Science 48: 651–659.
Skipper, H. D. & D. T. Westermann (1973): Comparative effects of propylene oxide, sodium azide, and autoclaving on selected soil properties. – Soil Biology and Biochemistry 5: 409–414.
Tanaka, S., T. Kobayashi, K. Iwasaki, S. Yamane, K. Maeda & K. Sakurai (2003): Properties and metabolic diversity of microbial communities in soils treated with steam sterilization compared with methyl bromide and chloropicrin fumigations. – Soil science and plant nutrition 49: 603–610.
Tang, Y., Horikoshi, M. & Li, W. (2016): ggfortify: unified interface to visualize statistical results of popular R packages. – The R Journal 8: 478–489.
Trevors, J. (1996): Sterilization and inhibition of microbial activity in soil. – Journal of Microbiological Methods 26: 53–59.
Van der Heijden, M. G., R. D. Bardgett & N.M. Van Straalen (2008): The unseen majority: soil microorganisms as drivers of plant diversity and productivity in terrestrial ecosystems. – Ecology Letters 11: 296–310.
Van der Putten, W. H., R. D. Bardgett, J. D. Bever, T. M. Bezemer, B. B. Casper, T. Fukami, P. Kardol, J. N. Klironomos, A. Kulmatiski & J. A. Schweitzer (2013): Plant–soil feedbacks: the past, the present and future challenges. – Journal of Ecology 101: 265–276.
Van der Putten, W. H., M. A. Bradford, E. Pernilla Brinkman, T. F. van de Voorde & G. F. Veen (2016): Where, when and how plant–soil feedback matters in a changing world. – Functional Ecology 30: 1109–1121.
Wickham, H., W. Chang & M. H. Wickham (2016): Package ‘ggplot2’. – Create Elegant Data Visualisations using the Grammar of Graphics Version 2: 1–189.
Williams-Linera, G. & J. J. Ewel (1984): Effect of autoclave sterilization of a tropical andept on seed germination and seedling growth. – Plant and Soil 82: 263–268.
Yeates, G. W., T. Bongers, R. De Goede, D. W. Freckman & S. Georgieva (1993): Feeding habits in soil nematode families and genera—an outline for soil ecologists. – Journal of nematology 25: 315.
Zhalnina, K., R. Dias, P. D. de Quadros, A. Davis-Richardson, F. A. Camargo, I. M. Clark, S. P. McGrath, P. R. Hirsch & E. W. Triplett (2015): Soil pH determines microbial diversity and composition in the park grass experiment. – Microbial ecology 69: 395–406.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
All articles on www.soil-organisms.org may be read, copied, distributed, and (in limited quantity) printed for non-commercial, private, scientific purposes.
