Modeling the Impact of Contamination on Microbial-Enzyme Dynamics and Soil Function
- 1Montclair State University
Abstract
Globally, contaminated soils pose serious risks to agriculture, biodiversity of ecosystems, and human health. Although a variety of monitoring and remediation methods have been developed over the years, there remains a lack of theoretical modelling to better understand the impact of contamination on soil carbon in a microbially-mediated system. In this study, we develop a model which incorporates contaminated soil organic carbon, uncontaminated soil organic carbon, dissolved organic carbon, microbes, extracellular enzymes, and CO2, to explore how different amounts of contamination and modes of contamination (pulse and press) affect microbially-mediated carbon flux within both vegetated and barren environments. The model represents contamination as a pool of contaminated soil organic carbon that is more resistant to microbial degradation than uncontaminated soil organic carbon. The results show that, in barren environments, the amount and type of contamination has no notable impact on the soil system. In contrast to this, in vegetated environments, plants mitigate the impact of large contamination inputs with differences in outcome depending on the amount and type of contamination.
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BibTeX
@misc{vafaie2026modeling,
title = {{Modeling the Impact of Contamination on Microbial-Enzyme Dynamics and Soil Function}},
author = {S. Vafaie and N. M. Goodey and J. A. Krumins and E. Forgoston},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.07.757410},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.07.757410v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Modeling the Impact of Contamination on Microbial-Enzyme Dynamics and Soil Function
AU - S. Vafaie
AU - N. M. Goodey
AU - J. A. Krumins
AU - E. Forgoston
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/07
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.07.757410
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.07.757410v1
AB - Globally, contaminated soils pose serious risks to agriculture, biodiversity of ecosystems, and human health. Although a variety of monitoring and remediation methods have been developed over the years, there remains a lack of theoretical modelling to better understand the impact of contamination on soil carbon in a microbially-mediated system. In this study, we develop a model which incorporates contaminated soil organic carbon, uncontaminated soil organic carbon, dissolved organic carbon, microbes, extracellular enzymes, and CO2, to explore how different amounts of contamination and modes of contamination (pulse and press) affect microbially-mediated carbon flux within both vegetated and barren environments. The model represents contamination as a pool of contaminated soil organic carbon that is more resistant to microbial degradation than uncontaminated soil organic carbon. The results show that, in barren environments, the amount and type of contamination has no notable impact on the soil system. In contrast to this, in vegetated environments, plants mitigate the impact of large contamination inputs with differences in outcome depending on the amount and type of contamination.
ER -