Effect of nutrient management regimes on soil biological properties- a review

Abstract

Soil quality assessment is very important aspect in determining long term sustainability; however it is governed by different physico-chemical and biochemical parameters. These are interrelated among them and controlled by different management practices like tillage, water, organic and inorganic source of nutrients etc. Among the different soil parameters, it was considered that soil biochemical parameters provide rapid and accurate estimates on soil quality and its evaluation require understanding of biochemical and microbiological soil properties. Among the several biochemical and microbiological properties, soil organic carbon fractions, microbial biomass and soil enzymes activities may be considered as an important property which governed soil health or quality. Soil organic carbon fractions includes total organic carbon, soil organic carbon (oxidizable carbon), labile carbon etc., microbial biomass and enzymes activities include content of microbial biomass carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and activities of different enzymes like dehydrogenase, acid and alkaline phosphatase, Urease, β-glucosidase, Aryl sulphatase etc. It is established and proved that, nutrient management practices (application of fertilizers and manures) marked significant effect on SOC fractions and soil enzymes activities. In most of cases, the application of organic sources of nutrients as well as integrated nutrient management resulted in significant improvement in the soil biochemical properties, however, microbial properties like microbial biomass carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and enzymes activities are very sensitive to nutrient management options compared to soil organic carbon fractions.