Soil microbial metabolism and invertase activity under crop rotation and no-tillage in North China

J.L. Hu, A.N. Zhu, J.H. Wang, J. Dai, J.T. Wang, R.R. Chen and X.G. Lin
Additional contact information
J.L. Hu: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Joint Open Laboratory of Soil and the Environment, Hong Kong Baptist University and Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, P.R. China
A.N. Zhu: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Joint Open Laboratory of Soil and the Environment, Hong Kong Baptist University and Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, P.R. China
J.H. Wang: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Joint Open Laboratory of Soil and the Environment, Hong Kong Baptist University and Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, P.R. China
J. Dai: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Joint Open Laboratory of Soil and the Environment, Hong Kong Baptist University and Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, P.R. China
J.T. Wang: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Joint Open Laboratory of Soil and the Environment, Hong Kong Baptist University and Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, P.R. China
R.R. Chen: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Joint Open Laboratory of Soil and the Environment, Hong Kong Baptist University and Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, P.R. China
X.G. Lin: State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Joint Open Laboratory of Soil and the Environment, Hong Kong Baptist University and Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, P.R. China

Plant, Soil and Environment, 2013, vol. 59, issue 11, 511-516

Abstract: Soil samples were collected at both jointing and maturing stages of maize and wheat to compare the effects of 4-year no-tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT) on seasonal variations of microbial biomass carbon (C), metabolic quotient, and invertase activity in a sandy loam soil in North China. Soil invertase activity significantly increased (P < 0.05) from summer to spring of the next year and then significantly decreased (P < 0.05) from spring to summer. With a delay of about 3 months, soil microbial biomass C and basal respiration altered in a similar pattern, while microbial metabolic quotient changed on the contrary. Compared with CT, the NT practice significantly increased (P < 0.05) soil organic C content, and tended to result in higher soil microbial biomass C and invertase activity, as well as lower soil microbial metabolic quotient, especially at the jointing stage of maize. Our results indicated that NT might play an important role in the improvement of soil microbial efficiency, especially at the maize seedling season.

Keywords: basal respiration; metabolic quotient; microbial biomass; seasonal variation; soil organic carbon (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://pse.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/446/2013-PSE.html (text/html)
http://pse.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/446/2013-PSE.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:caa:jnlpse:v:59:y:2013:i:11:id:446-2013-pse

DOI: 10.17221/446/2013-PSE

Access Statistics for this article

Plant, Soil and Environment is currently edited by Kateřina Součková

More articles in Plant, Soil and Environment from Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ivo Andrle ().