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(22-26) Sterols content in agricultural soils and their potential use as biochemical indicators. Puglisi, Edoardo*,1, Nicelli, Marco1, Capri, Ettore1, Trevisan, Marco1, Del Re, Attilio1, 1 Istituto di Chimica Agraria ed Ambientale, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, Piacenza, Italy ABSTRACT- A definition of soil quality must consider the effects that different potentially pollutant agents may have upon its biological composition. Sterols are typical compounds of cellular membrane and their detection brings a better understanding of soil biomass origin. In particular cholesterol is typical of animals, beta-sithosterol of plants and ergosterol of fungi, while coprasthanol is already used as an indicator of faecal matter and potentially dangerous coliformous bacteria. Three soils subjected to different treatments (sewage sludge disposal, irrigation by saline waters and contamination by industrial wastes) were sampled in three different season and their sterols content was measured and compared to adjacent untreated soils. A Mixed Model Analysis of Variance (Proc. GLM; SAS, 1989) was applied to those data sets, in order to enlighten the effects of seasonality, pedological localisation and treatments on sterols concentrations. Coprastanol showed a significant difference due to the effect of sewage sludge disposal and contamination by industrial wastes, while it was totally absent in the soil treated with saline water and in the adjacent untreated one. No seasonality effect was detected on its concentration. The other sterols didn't show treatment effects: concentrations of cholesterol and ergosterol were higher in spring; beta-sithosterol was more abundant in the soil contaminated with industrial wastes and in its control. Key words: Cholesterol, Ergosterol, Coprastanol, Soil quality |
