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ARS Home » Midwest Area » West Lafayette, Indiana » National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #114364
Title: COMPARISON OF BIOACTIVITY IN DIFFERENT AGGREGATE SIZES OF TEMPERATE AND TROPICAL SOILS

Author
item GREEN, V STEVEN - PURDUE UNIVERSITY
item Stott, Diane

Submitted to: Soil Science Society of America Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/30/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Soil biological activity plays a key role in soil aggregate structure. In order to better understand the biological dynamics of soil structural development, we examined some of the immobilized enzyme activities (b-glucosidase, arylsulfatase, acid phosphatase, and fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis) and microbial activities in different aggregate size fractions. We analyzed 4 aggregate size classes (1.0-2.0, 0.5-1.0, 0.2-0.5 and <0.2 mm) from 5 different soils (2 oxisols from Brazil and 3 temperate soils from the United States) varying in physical-chemical properties. The general trend was that enzyme activities were higher in the smallest aggregate size class. Additionally, there was much greater variation in the enzyme activities between aggregate size classes from the tropical soils than from the temperate soils. The impact of this work is the increased understanding of the location of the greatest biological activity ywithin the aggregates of all soil types, which leads to improved modelling of biological activity lost from a site due to erosion and increased activity at sites of deposition.