Impact of anthropogenic land uses on soil microbiological activity in a peri-urban landscape

Land use and land cover patterns impact soil properties and negatively affect soil microbial community and related processes. However, the information regarding the influence of urban land use on soil microbial composition and functioning is limited. Here, we investigated the impact of urban land use patterns on soil microbiological parameters by comparing five contrasting anthropogenic land use classes, i.e. agriculture, park, roadside plantation, street green, and bare land. Soil physicochemical properties, basal respiration (BR), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), and enzyme activities were estimated and correlated. The results revealed that soil physicochemical and microbiological properties greatly varied across the five land use classes. Among all the land use types, the roadside plantation had the highest nutrient content, i.e. soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and mineral nitrogen (MN) (1.33%, 0.13%, 84.0 mg kg^-1, respectively), while the soil functional capacities measured in terms of BR, MBC, microbial quotient (QCO₂), soil microbial activity (SMA), and dehydrogenase activity (DHA) (9.90 C µg g^-1 h^-1, 300 µg g^-1, 0.045 µg h^-1/ µg MBC, 9.0 µg ml^-1, 1.30 TPF g^-1 h^-1, respectively) were highest in the park. Disturbed street greens were markedly nutrient depleted and apparently exhibited lower microbial activity. Variations in soil BR, MBC, and enzyme activity were revealed to be primarily influenced by soil moisture, available phosphorus, and SOC content. We concluded that the negative impacts of anthropogenic land use soil quality and microbiological functioning can be managed by integrating proper management approaches for various land use classes in urban systems.