Three decades of soil microbial biomass studies in Brazilian ecosystems: Lessons learned about soil quality and indications for improving sustainability

Kaschuk, Glaciela; Alberton, Odair; Hungría, Mariangela

doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2009.08.020

Cited by 356 publications

(237 citation statements)

References 98 publications

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“…Decreases in MBC in soils with applications of U were associated with the adverse effects of drastic pH changes caused by this fertilizer (Table 1), as discussed above. According to a meta-analysis of MBC in soils from different biomes in Brazil, the values observed in this study are close to those reported for agricultural soils in the Atlantic Forest biome (491 to 591µg C g -1 dry soil), except for the treatments with U, which remained below the average values observed in the region (KASCHUK et al, 2010). In general, soils receiving organic fertilizer had enhanced metabolic microbial activity, estimated as CO 2 production ( Figure 2b and 2c); with DL plots showing higher values than PS soils.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 83%

Response of soil microbiota to nine-year application of swine manure and urea

et al. 2015

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Manure fertilization is a common practice, but little is known about its impacts on soil microbial activity and organic matter. Aiming to evaluate soil microbial response to nine years of successive applications of swine manure, organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), pH, microbial biomass carbon (MBC), basal respiration (BR), metabolic quotient (qCO 2 ), and enzyme (ß-glucosidase, phosphatase, arylsulphatase, and FDA)

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 83%

Response of soil microbiota to nine-year application of swine manure and urea

et al. 2015

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“…In general, the no-tillage system, in addition to adequate crop rotation, has shown to improve attributes associated to soil health. A more stable soil temperature and humidity due to the constant soil mulching, greater inputs and maintenance of organic matter, protection against rain drops, thus preventing soil erosion, do stimulate the soil microbial diversity and activity, and consequent enhancement of nutrient cycling (Balota et al, 2003;Babujia et al, 2010;Kaschuk et al, 2010;Peixoto et al, 2010).…”

Section: Indicators Of Soil Health Under Varying Soil Tillage Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, under more aggressive, stressing conditions, as generally observed under conventional tillage, the bacterial community prevailed in relation to the fungal community (Pankhurst et al, 2002). Thus, it is not rare to find general increase of microbial biomass in soil under notillage in relation to conventional tillage (Helgason et al, 2010;Muruganandan et al, 2010), especially under tropical conditions, where the microbial biomass is greater and activity is more intense (Kaschuk et al, 2010).…”

Section: Indicators Of Soil Health Under Varying Soil Tillage Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tillage systems based on plowing and disking (so-called conventional tillage) in the tropical regions decrease soil organic matter and increase the erosion process, leading to chemical, physical, and biological changes in the soil characteristics that enhance the dependence on external inputs and consequently enhance production costs, causing environmental impacts. On the other hand, less impacting cropping systems like no-tillage and organic farming are much more reliant on biological processes for sustainability (Kaschuk et al, 2010). Sustainable ecosystems, natural or agricultural, rely on the flux of nutrients across trophic levels, which are mainly intermediated by soil fauna and microorganisms (Chen et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Soil health: looking for suitable indicators. What should be considered to assess the effects of use and management on soil health?

Cardoso¹,

Vasconcellos²,

Bini³

et al. 2013

Sci. agric. (Piracicaba, Braz.)

408

220

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Soil Health refers to the ecological equilibrium and the functionality of a soil and its capacity to maintain a well balanced ecosystem with high biodiversity above and below surface, and productivity. To understand and use soil health as a tool for sustainability, physical, chemical, and biological properties must be employed to verify which respond to the soil use and management within a desired timescale. Attributes with a rapid response to natural or anthropogenic actions are considered good indicators of soil health. Among the physical indicators, soil texture, aggregation, moisture, porosity, and bulk density have been used, while among chemical indicators total C and N, mineral nutrients, organic matter, cation exchange capacity, among others are well established. However, most of them generally have a slow response, when compared to the biological ones, such as microbial biomass C and N, biodiversity, soil enzymes, soil respiration, etc., in addition to macro and mesofauna. Thus, a systemic approach based on different kinds of indicators (physical, chemical and biological) in assessing soil health would be safer than using only one kind of attribute. Many human activities have caused desertification, loss of biodiversity, disruption of aggregates, loss of organic matter and nutrients, among others. Today, it is imperious to maintain soil health and productivity with increasing emphasis on reforestation and recuperation of degraded areas through the use of organic amendments, reintroduction of plants, soil fauna and microorganisms. This review focused on an integrative view on indicators of soil health to be used as tools for prediction of sustainability in production systems.

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“…The microbial biomass carbon (C mic ) is related to several processes: the decomposition of organic composts, nutrient cycling, nutrient solubility, degradation of xenobiotic compounds and pollutants, soil structure and biological pathogen control and is therefore seen as an important component of soil quality and productivity, as it responds more promptly to environmental changes than any other agronomic parameters (Kaschuk et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Industrial and urban organic wastes increase soil microbial activity and biomass

Boechat¹,

Santos

Accioly³

et al. 2012

Rev. Bras. Ciênc. Solo

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SUMMARYMicrobial processes have been used as indicators of soil quality, due to the high sensitivity to small changes in management to evaluate, e.g., the impact of applying organic residues to the soil. In an experiment in a completely randomized factorial design 6 x 13 + 4, (pot without soil and residue or absolute control) the effect of following organic wastes was evaluated: pulp mill sludge, petrochemical complex sludge, municipal sewage sludge, dairy factory sewage sludge, waste from pulp industry and control (soil without organic waste) after 2, 4, 6, 12, 14, 20, 28, 36, 44, 60, 74, 86, and 98 days of incubation on some soil microbial properties, with four replications. The soil microbial activity was highly sensitive to the carbon/nitrogen ratio of the organic wastes. The amount of mineralized carbon was proportional to the quantity of soil-applied carbon. The average carbon dioxide emanating from the soil with pulp mill sludge, corresponding to soil basal respiration, was 0.141 mg C-CO 2 100 g -1 soil h -1 . This value is 6.4 times higher than in the control, resulting in a significant increase in the metabolic quotient from 0.005 in the control to 0.025 mg C-CO 2 g -1 C mic h -1 in the soil with pulp mill sludge. The metabolic quotient in the other treatments did not differ from the control (p < 0.01), demonstrating that these organic wastes cause no disturbance in the microbial community.Index terms: microbial respiration, microbial carbon, microbial nitrogen, metabolic quotient, organic sludge.(1) Part of the dissertation of the first author, for a post-graduate degree in Agricultural Sciences, 2, 4, 6, 12, 14, 20, 28, 36, 44, 60, 74, 86

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Three decades of soil microbial biomass studies in Brazilian ecosystems: Lessons learned about soil quality and indications for improving sustainability

Cited by 356 publications

References 98 publications

Response of soil microbiota to nine-year application of swine manure and urea

Response of soil microbiota to nine-year application of swine manure and urea

Soil health: looking for suitable indicators. What should be considered to assess the effects of use and management on soil health?

Industrial and urban organic wastes increase soil microbial activity and biomass

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