Impacts of Some Heavy Metals on the Population of Micro-Organisms in the Soil of Maiganga Coal Mining Area, Gombe-Nigeria

¹ADAMU, S.J., ²UMAR, A.T. AND ²MAHMOUD, A.B.

¹Department of Geography, Gombe State University, Tudunwada, Gombe State, Nigeria.

²Department of Biological Sciences, Gombe State University, Tudunwada, Gombe State, Nigeria.

 E-mail: sanidaddy@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The number of bacterial and fungal colony forming unit (CFU) were determined in soils of Maiganga Coal mining area using a plate dilution technique on Thorton agar at dilution factor 10^-3 and 10^-4. Samples of soils were collected from farms in the areas: Farms: Coal mine: as well as residential areas which serve as the control site. Two sets of data were collected for the research: at the beginning of the rainy season (April/May 2012): and at the peak of rainy season (August/September 2012). The number of colony forming unit in the soils of the first sample were generally lower with the highest recorded at the residential area, farmlands and coal mined areas respectively. While the number of colony forming unit in the soils of the second sample were higher, also with the highest number of colony at the residential area followed by coal mined and farming areas respectively for bacterial count. While for the fungal count the highest number of colony were recorded at the residential, farmlands and coal mined areas respectively. The research concluded that for the future: investigation of soil microbial community structure and their activities should be done together; this would give more reliable and accurate information about the toxic effects of heavy metals on soil for either farming, mining or housing purposes.