Biological Oxygen Demand in Soils and Litters

Abstract

Biological oxygen demand (BOD) in mineral and organic horizons of soddy-podzolic soils in the forest-park belt of Moscow as an indicator of their microbial respiration and potential biodestruction function has been studied. The BOD of soil samples has been estimated with a portable electrochemical analyzer after incubation in closed flasks under optimum hydrothermal conditions. A universal gradation scale of this parameter from very low (<2 g O₂/(m³ h)) to extremely high (>140 g O₂/(m³ h)) has been proposed for mineral and organic horizons of soil. A physically substantiated model has been developed for the vertical distribution of BOD in the soil, which combines the diffusion transport of oxygen from the atmosphere and its biogenic uptake in the soil by the first-order reaction. An analytical solution of the model in the stationary state has been obtained; from it, the soil oxygen diffusivity and the kinetic constants of O₂ uptake have been estimated, and the profile-integrated total BOD value has been calculated (0.4–1.8 g O₂/(m² h)), which is theoretically identical to the potential oxygen flux from the soil surface due to soil respiration. All model parameters reflect the recreation load on the soil cover by the decrease in their values against the control.