Abstract

The present study examined air pollution effects on soil health by applying microbiological parameters. It was carried out near the Angren-Almalyk mining and industrial area in a semiarid region of Uzbekistan. This area was selected in order to establish a national monitoring program for assessing the environmental conditions of areas remote but downwind from greater emission sources. Moreover, little information exists about how air pollution affects the microbiological functioning of soils in semiarid and arid regions of the world, and especially those of Central Asia. The soil samples, which are heavily impacted by aerial emissions from the coal-burning and metal-processing industry of the Angren-Almalyk industrial area, were the main subject of our intensive investigation