earticle

영어

Atmospheric fine dust is an emerging problem as a result of growing industrialization and environmental changes. In this study, fine dust could be an alternative fact to contaminate soil property. The soil exposed to fine dust was significantly changed in its porosity as compared with the control. A subsequent experiment revealed that fine dust restricted the production of soil bacteria through the increment of soil porosity and that increased porosity is closely associated to the production of calcium carbonate by soil bacteria. In situ analyses for soils exposed to high amount of atmospheric fine dust revealed the significant attenuation of five different microbial species, which abundantly exists within the ground soil. Moreover, fine dust-mediated growth reduction of soil bacteria resulted in the accelerated growth of E.coli, a bacterial strain. Co-culture of E.coli with soil extracts demonstrated that soil contents significantly lowered the growth rate of E.coli, indicating that soil bacteria is responsible for protecting water quality from the opportunistic bacterial infections. Collectively the data demonstrate that the topic for atmospheric fine dust could be worth deliberation for protecting ground water preservation as a possible resource of drinking water.