Soil Microbial Communities and Enzyme Activities after Long-Term Application of Inorganic and Organic Fertilizers at Different Depths of the Soil Profile

Ladislav Holík, Lukáš Hlisnikovský, Roman Honzík, Josef Trögl, Hana Burdová and Jan Popelka
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Ladislav Holík: Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Lukáš Hlisnikovský: Department of nutrition management, Crop Research Institute, 161 01 Prague, Czech Republic
Roman Honzík: Department of nutrition management, Crop Research Institute, 161 01 Prague, Czech Republic
Josef Trögl: Faculty of Environment, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, 400 96 Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic
Hana Burdová: Faculty of Environment, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, 400 96 Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic
Jan Popelka: Faculty of Environment, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, 400 96 Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 12, 1-14

Abstract: Fertilization is a key factor for sustaining productivity in agroecosystems. A long-term experiment in cambisol following periodical application of several types of fertilization has been running at the experimental site since 1954. In this study, we determined the impact of applied inorganic and/or organic fertilizers on the activity of soil enzymes and on the structure of microorganisms at depths of 0–30 cm and 30–60 cm. Single-factor comparison showed that use of inorganic and/or organic fertilizer had an insignificant effect on the activities of soil enzymes (at depths 0–30 cm and 30–60 cm) and also on the structure of microbial communities at both depths studied. Only soil respirations exhibited stimulation by combined fertilization. The results, irrespective of sampling depth (0–60 cm), showed that application of combined organic and inorganic fertilization stimulated the activity of glucosidases and use of inorganic fertilizer inhibited the activity of arylsulphatases. Respirations were stimulated by application of organic fertilizer and combined fertilization. Nevertheless, principal component analyses, which calculate with multidimensional data, revealed differences in samples treated by sole mineral fertilizer compared to other variants, especially in the lower layer. In general, our results indicate that use of combined fertilization may improve biological characteristics in deeper parts of soil profile and possibly increase biological activity in agroecosystems.

Keywords: soil microorganisms; phospholipid fatty acids; soil enzyme activities; agricultural soil fertilization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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