Soil Texture Mediates the Toxicity of ZnO and Fe3O4 Nanoparticles to Microbial Activity

作者：Ghulam Mustafa Shah, Ghulam Abbas Shah, Zunaira Shabbir, Faiz Rabbani, Muhammad Imtiaz Rashid, Hafiz Faiq Bakhat, Muhammad Asif Naeem, Ghulam Abbas, Ghulam Abbas Shah, Ghulam Abbas Shah, Naeem Shahid · 发表于：Toxics · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.3390/toxics13020084 · 被引用次数：11 · 研究领域：Nanoparticles: synthesis and applications、Therapeutic Uses of Natural Elements、Environmental remediation with nanomaterials

The widespread use of metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) in industrial and household products has raised concerns about their potential soil contamination and its ecological consequences. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the effects of iron oxide nanoparticles (FeONPs) and zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) on the microbial activity and biochemical properties of differently textured soils. A mesocosm experiment was conducted using three soil types–clay loam (CL), sandy clay loam (SCL), and sandy loam (SL) amended with farmyard manure (FYM), ZnONPs and/or FeONPs. The results revealed significant differences in microbial colony-forming units (CFUs) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the order of SL > SCL > CL. Compared with those from the unfertilized control, the CO2 emissions from the FYM increased by 112%, 184% and 221% for CL, SCL and SL, respectively. The addition of ZnONPs and FeONPs notably increased the microbial biomass Zn/Fe, which reflected their consumption by the soil microbes. As a result, microbial CFUs were considerably reduced, which led to a 24%, 8% and 12% reduction in cumulative CO2 emissions after the addition of ZnONPs to the CL, SCL and SL soils, respectively. The respective decrements in the case of FeONPs were 19%, 2% and 12%. The temporal dynamics of CO2 emissions revealed that the CO2 emissions from CL with or without FYM/NPs did not differ much during the first few days and later became pronounced with time. Almost all the st...