Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

Increases of soil phosphatase and urease activities in potato fields by cropping rotation practices

Author(s):

Zhongqi He ^*, C. Wayne Honeycutt, Timothy S. Griffin, Robert P. Larkin, Modesto Olanya, John M. Halloran

Recieved Date: 2010-01-10, Accepted Date: 2010-04-07

Abstract:

Soil phosphatase and urease activities which are responsible for P and N mineralization, respectively, could be indicators of soil health for nutrient availability. In this work, we measured the activities of acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, phosphodiesterase, and non-buffered and buffered urease in soils under rainfed and irrigated potato with different crop rotation managements. Compared with continuous potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) production, three-year rotation practices increased all soil enzyme activities in rainfed condition by 10 to 86%. Irrigation increased alkaline phosphatase, phosphodiesterase, and both unbuffered and buffered urease activities, but decreased acid phosphatase activity compared with no irrigation. Under rainfed management, microbial biomass C level was highly correlated with phosphatase and urease activities. When measured under buffered conditions, urease activity was highly correlated with rainfed potato yield. To the extent that urease is an indicator of plant N availability, this may reflect the influence of N availability on yield. This study showed that both cropping system and water management influence the activities of several enzymes considered important for plant uptake of N and P.

Keywords:

Phosphatase, urease, potato, cropping rotation, irrigation, soil enzymes, microbial biomass carbon

---

Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2010
Volume: 8
Issue: 2
Category: Environment
Pages: 1112-1117

---

Full text for Subscribers

---

Information:

Note to users

The requested document is freely available only to subscribers/registered users with an online subscription to the Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment. If you have set up a personal subscription to this title please enter your user name and password. All abstracts are available for free.

Article purchasing

If you like to purchase this specific document such as article, review or this journal issue, contact us. Specify the title of the article or review, issue, number, volume and date of the publication. Software and compilation, Science & Technology, all rights reserved. Your use of this website details or service is governed by terms of use. Authors are invited to check from time to time news or information.

---

Purchase this Article:   20 Purchase PDF Order Reprints for 15

---

Share this article :