The effects of vehicular emissions on the activity and diversity of the roadside soil microbial community

Motor vehicles emit a variety of pollutants including metals, petroleum hydrocarbons and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The relationships between metals, petroleum hydrocarbons and PAHs, soil respiration and microbial diversity (fungi and bacteria) were studied using control (n = 3) and roadside soils (n = 27) with different exposure periods to vehicle emissions (2–63 years). Bacterial diversity was found to be higher than control sites (P = 0.002) but was the same across different categories of road age (P = 0.328). Significant (r = −0.49, P = 0.007) contrasting behaviour of fungal and bacterial diversity was reported, with diversity increasing across all road types for bacteria and decreasing across all road types for fungi compared to control soils. Analysis of the bacterial community identified three distinct clusters, separated on age of contamination, suggesting that roadside bacterial communities change over time with pollution from vehicles with the potential development of metal resistant bacteria in roadside soils. In contrast, for fungal communities, a reduction in diversity with time of exposure to roadside vehicle emissions was observed suggesting the potential for reduced ecosystem functionality and soil health in roadside soils. This is the first study in the published literature to include both bacterial and fungal responses from aged roadside soils. The results from this study suggest that normal functionality of soil ecosystem services is being affected in roadside soils, potentially globally.