Effect of heavy metal on bacterial population and diversity of Gopalpur soil series

Soil contaminated with heavy metals is emerging hazardous tendency across the world due to various activities. Soil are providing habitat to many organisms and its contamination leads to effect the growth, yield and performance. The heavy metal deposition in soil effects microbial diversity and production. In this study the heavy metal, zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) and cadmium (Cd) were selected to observe their effect on bacterial population and diversity from Gopalpur soil series. The incubation period of heavy metals was for every 15 days. Bacterial population and diversity were determined carefully by viable count and colony characteristics method. The combined applications of heavy metal were found more toxic to bacterial population than single application. The bacterial abundance including diversity decreases with time.