Soil Biochemical Changes Induced by Poultry Litter Application and Conservation Tillage under Cotton Production Systems

Abstract

Problems arising from conventional tillage (CT) systems (such as soil erosion, decrease of organic matter, environmental damage etc.) have led many farmers to the adoption of no-till (NT) systems that are more effective in improving soil physical, chemical and microbial properties. Results from this study clearly indicated that NT, mulch tillage (MT), and winter rye cover cropping systems increased the activity of phosphatase, β-glucosidase and arylsulfatase at a 0–10 cm soil depth but decreased the activity of these enzymes at 10–20 cm. The increase in enzyme activity was a good indicator of intensive soil microbial activity in different soil management practices. Poultry litter (PL) application under NT, MT, and rye cropping system could be considered as effective management practices due to the improvement in carbon (C) content and the biochemical quality at the soil surface. The activities of the studied enzymes were highly correlated with soil total nitrogen (STN) soil organic carbon (SOC) at the 0–10 cm soil depth, except for acid phosphatase where no correlation was observed. This study revealed that agricultural practices such as tillage, PL, and cover crop cropping system have a noticeable positive effect on soil biochemical activities under cotton production

Plant diversity in integrated crop-livestock systems increases the soil enzymatic activity in the short term

“…This increase in phosphatase activities via ICLS corroborates the results by Barbiere et al (2019), who, by studying management techniques in the Brazilian South, discovered an increase in acid phosphatase activities in areas that showed a higher plant diversity at the second harvest. Studies carried out in the Cerrado (Brazilian Savanna) region have shown values for this enzyme ranging from 23 to 2,100 μg of p-nitrophenol h -1 g -1 dry soil (Mendes et al 2003, Carneiro et al 2009, Mankolo et al 2012, Barbiere et al 2019, demonstrating that the values observed in this study are within the range found in the region.…”

Phosphatase Activities and Available Nutrients in Soil Receiving Pelletized Poultry Litter

“…In this study, PPL application led to an increase in organic substrate that was detectable at the vegetative stage by increased DOC. Previous research found that both acid and alkaline phosphatases are correlated with organic C under different tillage and residue management (Deng and Tabatabai, 1997), whereas others found a high correlation between organic C and alkaline phosphatase but not between organic C and acid phosphatase in soil treated with poultry litter in cotton production systems (Mankolo et al, 2012). Poultry litter contains an average 25% C, ranging from 12% to 33% (Sharpley et al, 2009) and averaged 35% C in this study.…”

Assessing the Diversity and Composition of Bacterial Communities across a Wetland, Transition, Upland Gradient in Macon County Alabama

“…For example, the effect of land use changes can be assessed using microbial community metrics such as bacterial community structure and composition [10,11], enzymatic activity [12][13][14], and soil organic carbon [15][16][17][18]. Researchers have tied the status of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) to the activity of soil enzymes [19,20], including phosphatases [14]. It has even been suggested that these properties be used as indicators of change in wetland systems [20].…”