Retention modes of manure-fecal coliforms in soil under saturated hydraulic condition

Manures are important soil nutrient conditioners and source of several pathogenic bacteria that potentially contribute to groundwater and surface water pollution. The best management practices need a solid understanding of manure sources, concentrations, and strategies to limit the number of bacteria in natural soil environment. In this study, a series of soil column experiments were conducted to investigate how bacteria mobility can potentially be influenced by retention mechanisms while moving through undisturbed saturated soil. This was assessed by bacteria retention profiles and mobility indices including the maximum transported (C_max-T) and retained (C_max-R) concentrations, filtration coefficient (λ_f) and the maximum depth of bacteria transport (Z_max). Three different soil samples (sandy, loamy and silty clay loam) were enriched with three types of manures (cow, sheep, and poultry), placed on top of three soil columns (16 cm diameter, 30 cm height) with an equivalent of 10 Mg ha⁻¹ (dry basis) summing up to a total of 36 columns. Leaching was performed under saturated steady-state conditions (i.e., 1.62 cm min⁻¹) for a duration of 4 pore volumes. After percolation, soil columns were sliced into six 5-cm interval layers and slices were characterized for retained bacteria. Results showed irregular exponential or quasi-exponential bacteria retention profiles for cow and sheep manures, whereas uniform-shaped profiles occurred for poultry manure. The latter variant also switched to exponential shape for the sandy soil at the highest and lowest C_max-T and C_max-R values due to higher pore water velocity. The λ_f and the Z_max values were also found to be affected by soil texture and manure origin. The λ_f was higher for poultry manure due to higher free-cell transport of bacteria most probably induced by higher amount of soluble mobile components. However, the greater amounts of transported wooden materials released from cow and sheep manures acted as harbors for bacteria. Accordingly, the filtration rate decreased and tailing effects for bacteria transport increased. The results also suggest that the practices and strategies for using manures could be optimized according to the respective transport behavior to manage the bacteria retention with respect to soil and manure types to reduce soil and water pollution.