Our study investigates plant-soil feedbacks in soils from Liberty State Park (LSP), an urban brownfield of Northern New Jersey. The goal of this study is to determine if plant growth is possible in contaminated LSP soil that shows minimal plant growth and enzymatic activity in the field. We therefore created soil treatments that represented a gradient of soil contamination and relative biological activity from established research plots at LSP. Rye grass, switch grass, and common dandelion were planted in collected soils for 65 days in a growth chamber. Additionally, we investigate the importance of arbuscular mycorrhizae fungi (AMF) on this system through quantification of AMF root infection and treatment soils.
Results/Conclusions:
Germination time was similar across all treatments. Contrary to what is seen in our plots, plant growth was not hindered by the most contaminated soil. Dry plant weights from harvest show highly variable degree of plant growth, hypothesized to be a result of seed variability and moisture inconsistency between soil types. Results from this study may be applied for remediation of heavy metal contaminated soil and a better understanding of the fate of post-industrial and urban soils.