Land use, salinity and water quality. The case study of a coastal system in central Italy

Abstract

In this study, the evaluation of soil and groundwater quality was coupled with a T-RFLP and real time qPCR analysis of 16S and 18S rRNA genes in order to investigate the soil microbial community structure and diversity in a coastal lagoon system of Central Italy. The main aim of the research was to assess the reciprocal effect of the lagoon salinity and of the different land uses both on the inland groundwater and quality, and on the soil microbial community structure and diversity. Results emphasize for the first time the diversity of the microbial communities in environments with a strong salinity gradient, as affected by land use, depth and spatial location.

Keywords

• coastal systems
• land use
• microbial community
• salinity
• water quality