Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

The effect of different rates and forms of sulphur applied on soil microbial biomass and activity

Author(s):

Shizhang Zheng ^{1, 2}, Jun Fan¹, Hongqing Hu ^1*

Recieved Date: 2011-07-10, Accepted Date: 2011-10-02

Abstract:

A pot experiment with red soil was carried out in a greenhouse for studying the effect of different rates and forms of sulphur application on soil microbiological properties in rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil of oilseed rape. Three sulphur fertilization rates (0, 0.07and 0.14 g/kg soil) in the forms of sulphate (SO₄^2--S) and pure sulphur powder (S^o-S) were applied. Some microbiological properties and metabolic quotient (qCO₂) were analysed in laboratory. The results showed that there were significant differences (P<0.05) among various rates of sulphur fertilizer treatments on these properties. Soil microbial biomass C, N and basal respiration increased with sulphur fertilizer addition, which resulted in increases of -1.7% – 44.6% for the S^o-S fertilizer treatments and 4.7% – 64.5% for the SO₄^2--S fertilizer treatments in the rhizosphere soil, and -1.7% – 70.0% for the S^o-S fertilizers treatments and 23.5% – 70.9% for the SO₄^2--S fertilizer treatments in the non-rhizosphere soil, respectively, but for the SO₄^2--S and S^o-S fertilizer treatments, there were no significant difference with these properties in both soils. The changes of microbial properties for rhizosphere soil and non-rhizosphere soil were similar to the increase of the sulphur fertilizers applied. The levels of microbial biomass C and S in the rhizosphere soils were lower than that in the non-rhizosphere soils, which could be the impact of rhizosphere environment. The soil pH had a negative effect on the microbial biomass C, N and S, which contributed to the conversion of sulphur and plant uptake. Microbial biomass C/N, C/S and N/S ratio decreased as evidenced by the range of mean contents of microbial biomass C/N, C/S and N/S were 12.69 to 23.11, 20.22 to 25.31 and 1.00 to 2.01, respectively. These suggested that sulphur fertilizer application could affect microbial biomass C and N and the activity as qCO₂.

Keywords:

Red soil, rape, sulphur fertilizers, soil microbial biomass, activity

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Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2011
Volume: 9
Issue: 3&4
Category: Environment
Pages: 898-906

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