Objective: To investigate the relationship between copper speciation and microbial features (microbial communities and copper tolerance level) in order to determine the adverse effect of different forms of Cu on microorganisms.
Methods: Tessier's sequential extraction procedure was used to qualify the different Cu forms (exchangeable, carbonate bound, Fe/Mn oxide bound, residue and organic matter bound), and the copper tolerance level (expressed as IC50, influence concentration) was measured by the plate-count method.
Results: By simple correlation analysis, the IC50 was positively correlated with the concentration of exchangeable Cu (R2 = 0.8204), while weakly correlated with other forms of Cu.
Conclusion: The bacterial community tolerance increases in the copper-contaminated soil while sensitive bacteria decrease in the copper-contaminated soils. The exchangeable Cu exerts high toxicity to microbial communities.