Effects of sewage effluent disposal on community structure of soil invertebrates

In 1962, researchers at Pennsylvania State University pursued the following objective: to determine the feasibility and effects of disposal of municipal sewage effluents on a variety of vegetative sites. Since then, numerous facts have been accumulated which were compiled by the project directors Sopper and Kardos (Sopper and Kardos 1973). Generally they have demonstrated for the first time in the U.S. a satisfactory method for renovation of wastewater and sludge and secondly, some very interesting physical, chemical and biological relationships resulting from irrigation-recycling of the materials. All the relationships described are focused on what they call the “living filter concept”. That is, they suggest that plants, litter, organic matter plus associated microflora and fauna on and incorporated within upper soil horizons constitute this dynamic biological filtering system.