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

• Main Authors: Diana Morales, Mónica Machado Vargas, Michele Pottes de Oliveira, Bruna Lunarde Taffe, Jucinei Comin, Claudio Roberto Soares, Paulo Lovato
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Maria 2015-01-01
• Series: Ciência Rural
• Subjects: atividade microbiana do solo; adubos nitrogenados; qualidade do solo
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-84782015005040565&lng=en&tlng=en

ABSTRACT: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 (qCO2), and enzyme (ß-glucosidase, phosphatase, arylsulphatase, and FDA) activities were measured in the 0-10cm soil layer, in a no-tillage system. Treatments were: control soil without fertilization (C), and application of two doses (104 and 209kg of N ha-1year-1) of urea (U1 and U2), pig slurry (PS1 and PS2) and deep litter (DL1 and DL2). TOC, TN, soil pH, MBC, and BR increased in soil fertilized with DL, and were lower in U treatments. Soils with U and DL application had higher qCO2, related to different sources of stressors like nutrient imbalance. Phosphatase and ß-glucosidase activities were not affected by treatments, increased with time, and had a strong correlation with MBC. We conclude that long-term swine manure applications increase microbial activity and soil organic matter, mainly in DL form; while urea applications have negative impacts on these indicators.