Soil Enzyme Activities as Biological Indicators of Soil Health

Abstract

Soil health can be defined as the continued capacity of a specific kind of soil to function as a vital living system, within natural or managed ecosystem boundaries, to sustain plant and animal productivity, to maintain or enhance the quality of air and water environments, and to support human health and habitation. Because of the conflicting pressures increasingly applied to the soil, it is clear that relevant indicators are urgently needed to assess and monitor soil health. Biological indicators of soil health offer certain advantages over physicochemical methods. Among the various biological indicators that have been proposed to monitor soil health, soil enzyme activities have great potential to provide a unique integrative biological assessment of soils and the possibility of assessing the health of the soil biota. Besides, soil enzyme activities provide an easy, relatively rapid, and low cost procedure to monitor soil health. Nevertheless, soil enzyme activities also present some limitations and must always be considered in conjunction with other biological and physicochemicals measurements if we are to diagnose soil health correctly.

Effects of multiple heavy metal contamination and repeated phytoextraction by Sedum plumbizincicola on soil microbial properties

“…The goal of remediating heavy metal contaminated soil is not only to remove metals but also to restore the capacity of the soil to perform or function according to its potential [21]. Thus relevant indicators are urgently needed to assess and monitor soil quality after remediation [1]. Several studies have been carried out on soil quality changes in heavy metal polluted soils after repeated phytoextraction [14,20,30], but experimentally contaminated soils have usually been used and this leads to difficulties interpreting the results because of differences from field soils subjected to long-term metal stress.…”

“…It is therefore desirable to study soil quality dynamics during long-term phytoremediation in situ and selection of appropriate indicators is key to assessment of soil quality. Biological indicators related to the size, activity and diversity of soil microbial communities are becoming increasingly popular because of their sensitivity to changes in the soil and their capacity to provide information that integrates multiple environmental factors [1].…”

Evidence of Soil Health Benefits of Flooded Rice Compared to Fallow Practice

“…It is often said that a handful of productive soil contains more living organisms than people living on Earth. Managing soil health involves maintaining a habitat for these living organisms, which include bacteria, algae, fungi, and plants (Alkorta et al, 2003). When these soil organisms die and decay, organic matter is created, which is primarily made up of carbon compounds.…”

Effect of new lines of winter wheat on microbiological activity in Luvisol

“…Enzymes secreted out of and into cells are catalysts of biochemical processes in soil, and play an important role in the circulation of nutrients and mineralization of soil organic matter (Böhme and Böhme, 2006;Simon, 2002;Trásar-Cepeda et al, 2000). Therefore, both the size of microbial populations and their enzymatic activity are good indicators of changes caused by biotic and abiotic factors (AcostaMartínez et al, 2007;Alkorta et al, 2003;Colombo, 2002;Emmerling et al, 2002;Janvier et al, 2007). Soil microorganisms play a highly important role in the transformation of nitrogen compounds, including the processes of ammonification and nitrification, among others (Nannipieri et al, 2003;Sorensen, 2001).…”