Use of biomass ash to reduce toxicity affecting soil bacterial community growth due to tetracycline antibiotics

Abstract

Tetracycline antibiotics (TA) used in veterinary medicine reach terrestrial ecosystems mostly via the repeated applications of animal manures and slurries on agricultural soils, where they may cause toxic effects on bacterial communities. In the current work, we studied the efficacy of adding doses of 0, 6, 24 and 48 g kg−1 of biomass ash (BA) to four different soils to reduce potential negative effects of tetracycline antibiotics. Specifically, soil samples were polluted with different concentrations of tetracycline, oxytetracycline or chlortetracycline, and the bacterial community growth was estimated using the 3H leucine incorporation technique. Soil amendment with BA increased soil pH (1.3–4.8 units), total carbon (0.7–5.8 g kg−1) and Fe and Al oxides concentrations (0.25–3.98 g kg−1), as well as bacterial activity (1–9 times compared to the control). In addition, BA amendment at high doses (24 or 48 g kg−1) resulted in a similar toxicity decrease for the three antibiotics, but with variations among soils. The reductions in antibiotics toxicity were very variable, ranging between 5% and 100% (total recovery). In view of that, the spreading of BA could be interesting as management practice to reduce risks of soil pollution and subsequent toxicity on bacterial communities due to tetracycline antibiotics.