{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,7]],"date-time":"2026-10-07T13:01:48Z","timestamp":1791378108731,"version":"4.3.2"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,24]],"date-time":"2025-01-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1737676800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Higher Education Commission of Pakistan under the grants for national research programs for universities","award":["project#9098\/Balochistan\/NRPU\/R&D\/HEC\/2017"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["project#9098\/Balochistan\/NRPU\/R&D\/HEC\/2017"]}]},{"name":"Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research\u2014UFZ, Germany","award":["project#9098\/Balochistan\/NRPU\/R&D\/HEC\/2017"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["project#9098\/Balochistan\/NRPU\/R&D\/HEC\/2017"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Toxics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The widespread use of metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) in industrial and household products has raised concerns about their potential soil contamination and its ecological consequences. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the effects of iron oxide nanoparticles (FeONPs) and zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) on the microbial activity and biochemical properties of differently textured soils. A mesocosm experiment was conducted using three soil types\u2013clay loam (CL), sandy clay loam (SCL), and sandy loam (SL) amended with farmyard manure (FYM), ZnONPs and\/or FeONPs. The results revealed significant differences in microbial colony-forming units (CFUs) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the order of SL &gt; SCL &gt; CL. Compared with those from the unfertilized control, the CO2 emissions from the FYM increased by 112%, 184% and 221% for CL, SCL and SL, respectively. The addition of ZnONPs and FeONPs notably increased the microbial biomass Zn\/Fe, which reflected their consumption by the soil microbes. As a result, microbial CFUs were considerably reduced, which led to a 24%, 8% and 12% reduction in cumulative CO2 emissions after the addition of ZnONPs to the CL, SCL and SL soils, respectively. The respective decrements in the case of FeONPs were 19%, 2% and 12%. The temporal dynamics of CO2 emissions revealed that the CO2 emissions from CL with or without FYM\/NPs did not differ much during the first few days and later became pronounced with time. Almost all the studied chemical characteristics of the soils were not strongly affected by the ZnONPs\/FeONPs, except EC, which decreased with the addition of these nanomaterials to the manure-amended soils. Principal component analysis revealed that the ZnONPs and FeONPs are negatively corelated with microbial CFUs, and CO2 emission, with ZnONPs being more toxic to soil microbes than FeONPs, though their toxicity is strongly influenced by soil texture. Hence, these findings suggest that while both these NPs have the potential to impair microbial activity, their effects are mediated by soil texture.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/toxics13020084","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,24]],"date-time":"2025-01-24T03:26:31Z","timestamp":1737689191000},"page":"84","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Soil Texture Mediates the Toxicity of ZnO and Fe3O4 Nanoparticles to Microbial Activity"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Ghulam Mustafa","family":"Shah","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari-Campus, Vehari 61100, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zunaira","family":"Shabbir","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari-Campus, Vehari 61100, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Faiz","family":"Rabbani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari-Campus, Vehari 61100, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5178-4445","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Muhammad Imtiaz","family":"Rashid","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center of Excellence in Environmental Studies, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80216, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4086-6410","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hafiz Faiq","family":"Bakhat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari-Campus, Vehari 61100, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9621-2371","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Muhammad Asif","family":"Naeem","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari-Campus, Vehari 61100, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ghulam","family":"Abbas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad 45550, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ghulam Abbas","family":"Shah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Naeem","family":"Shahid","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"System-Ecotoxicology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research\u2014UFZ, Permoserstra\u00dfe 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"908","DOI":"10.1016\/j.arabjc.2017.05.011","article-title":"Nanoparticles: Properties, applications and toxicities","volume":"12","author":"Khan","year":"2019","journal-title":"Arab. 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