Aerobic methane-oxidizing bacteria (MOB) play a crucial role in mitigating the methane emission from lake ecosystems to the atmosphere. However, the distribution of methanotrophic community in shallow and eutrophic lake and its influential factors remain essentially unclear. The present study investigated sediment methanotrophic microorganisms at different sites in eutrophic freshwater Dianchi Lake (China) in two different seasons. The abundance, diversity, and structure of sediment methanotrophic community showed a profound spatial and seasonal variation. The pmoA gene copy number in lake sediments ranged from 8.71 ± 0.49 × 10(4) to 2.09 ± 0.03 × 10(7) copies per gram of dry sediment. Sediment methanotrophic communities were composed of Methylococcus and Methylobacter (type I methanotrophs) and Methylosinus (type II methanotrophs), while type I MOB usually outnumbered type II MOB. Moreover, ammonia nitrogen was found to be a potential determinant of methanotrophic community structure in Dianchi Lake.

Sewage is widely used on agricultural soils in peri-urban areas of developing countries to meet shortages of water resource. Although sewage is a good source of plant nutrients, it also increases the heavy metals loads to soils. Microbial responses to these contaminants may serve as early warning indicators of adverse effects of sewage irrigation on soil quality. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of time of sewage irrigation on soil microbial indicators. Soil samples were collected from seven soil sites (S1-S7) irrigated with 0 years, 16 years, 23 years, 25 years, 27 years, 32 years and 52 years, respectively in Shijiazhuang of China and analyzed. For each soil sample, we determined the quantities of bacteria, fungi and actinomycete, and enzyme activities of urease, sucrase, phosphatase, dehydrogenase and catalase. Our results showed that the soils of S2-S7 irrigated with sewage effluents for different times (ranged between 16 and 52 years) exhibited higher densities of bacteria, actinomycete, urease, sucrase and phosphatase but lower densities of fungi when compared with S1 irrigated with sewage effluents for 0 years. The soil S7 irrigated with sewage effluents for longest times (52 years) contained lowest activities of catalase when compared with the soils of S1-S6. The densities of bacteria (R = 0.877, p < 0.01), actinomycete (R = 0.875, p < 0.01), sucrase (R = 0.858, p < 0.01) and phosphatase (R = 0.804, p < 0.05) were significantly correlated in a positive manner with time of sewage irrigation. Soil fungi quantities and urease, dehydrogenase and catalase activities did not change significantly with irrigation time. This study confirms that sewage irrigation had negative effects on microbial properties including fungi, catalase and dehydrogenase in the long term, so there is a need for continuous monitoring for sustainable soil health.

Sewage irrigation is one of the best options to reduce the stress on limited fresh water and to meet the nutrient requirement of crops. Environment pollution caused by volatile halogenated hydrocarbons (VHCs) associated with sewage irrigation has received increasing attention due to the toxicological importance in ecosystem. The aim of this study was to discuss the spatial distribution characteristics of VHCs in unsaturated zone under sewage irrigation and their migration in the environment. Soil samples were collected from XiaoDian district of TaiYuan city and measured for the major VHCs including of chloroform (CHCl3), tetrachloromethane (CCl4), trichloroethylene (C(2)HCl(3)), tetrachloroethylene(C(2)Cl(4)), pentachlorobenzene (C(6)HCl(5)), hexachlorobenzene (C(6)Cl(6)). Results showed that VHCs were accumulated in the unsaturated zone with long-term sewage irrigation. The contents of VHCs in the unsaturated zone of the study area were 34, 2, 3, 1.5, 8.3, 4.8 times higher than the background value respectively. Soils with long-term irrigation of sewage showed higher contents of VHCs than that with short-term irrigation of sewage. Not only the irrigation time, soil physical properties (e.g. soil texture) also played an important role on VHCs accumulation in soil.