Microbial ecology of soils surrounding nuclear and thermal power plants in Taiwan.

This paper reports a study of the effect of three nuclear and one thermal power plants on the microbial ecology of soils. Populations of bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, cellulolytic microbes, phosphate-solubilizing microbes and nitrogen-fixing microbes in the soil in the vicinity of each plant were studied. Soils were acidic at three sites, and moisture contents of the power plant soils were lower than those of the surrounding areas. Microbial populations of the topsoils (0-20 cm deep) were higher than the subsoils (21-40 cm deep), and only 10-15% of them showed significant difference (P < .05). Thirty-three percent of the samples from the surrounding areas had higher microbial population than those from the power plant areas, but 19% was the reverse. Populations of cellulolytic, phosphate-solubilizing and nitrogen-fixing microbes varied with sampling locations, season and environmental conditions. Ratios of cellulolytic, phosphate-solubilizing and nitrogen-fixing microbes to total viable counts in some samples of the surrounding areas were significantly higher than in the power plant areas. Although the microbial populations of power plant soil and its surrounding area were somewhat different, it cannot be attributed as an effect of power plant operation, as the differences were not consistent.