Soil quality and grain yield: A win–win combination in clayey tropical oxisols

Enzyme activities in a sandy soil of Western Bahia under cotton production systems: short-term effects, temporal variability, and the FERTBIO sample concept

“…The data points represent the average of the treatments, at three soil depths (0-10, 10-20, and 20-40 cm). All regressions parameters were significant (P < 0.01) emphasizing the adequacy of the 0-10-cm depth as a diagnostic layer for soil quality evaluations [17,44]. Overall, these results are in agreement with studies in other regions indicating that more diverse cropping systems under no tillage can enhance soil microbial biomass and activity by increasing the residue input into the soil and reducing soil disturbance and erosion [45][46][47][48][49].…”

“…Already observed for temperate conditions, soil enzyme measurements also have great potential as soil quality indicators in the tropics due to their sensitivity, responding faster to shifts in management practices than parameters like soil organic matter [10,15]. Other advantages include their close relationship to several aspects of soil functioning, precision, coherence, simple, and inexpensive analytical determinations [16,17]. Based on their close association with crop yields and SOM, interpretation tables for soil enzymes activities (EAs) were developed [18][19][20], establishing reference values (low, moderate, and adequate) for these bioindicators in tropical soils.…”

Contribution of enzymes to soil quality and the evolution of research in Brazil

“…As highlighted above, extracellular enzymes are sensitive to environmental changes, and several factors modulate their catalytic activity. These proteins are sensitive to alterations of land use, regulate SOM dynamics (Karaca et al, 2010;Acosta-Martínez et al, 2019;Adetunji et al, 2020), and relate to crop yields (Lopes et al, 2013(Lopes et al, , 2018Mendes et al, 2019aMendes et al, , 2021a. Thus, enzyme activities are key soil biological indicators of soil health and quality.…”

“…In recent years, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) has developed the soil bioanalysis technology SoilBio, which provides a simple, effective, and practical tool for monitoring and interpreting soil health at the farm scale (Mendes et al, 2018b(Mendes et al, , 2021a. This technology adds the microbiological component to the physicochemical analyses commonly used by farmers by evaluating the enzymes arylsulfatase and β-glucosidase, which were selected because they are robust soil health bioindicators (Mendes et al, 2019a(Mendes et al, , 2021a. With the results of the enzyme analyses, interpretation of the values is performed, falling into ranges of high, medium, or low.…”

“…Soil use and management are often inadequate, leading to degradation, and determining the activity of enzymes in the soil can be a strategic tool for the early diagnosis of soil degradation or improve and advance decision-making by farmers. In agricultural areas from Brazil, subjected to the same management practices for long periods, correlations observed between soil enzyme activity and plant productivity can be used to diagnose soil quality and guide targeted management to improve soil health and increase crop yields (van Es and Karlen, 2019;Mendes et al, 2021a). This review aims to present the fundamental contributions of soil enzymes to agriculture, emphasizing the dynamics of elements in soil and the environmental factors that modulate their activity.…”