Microbial enzymatic activity and thermal effect in a tropical soil treated with organic materials

Bacteria and fungi are the most active decomposers of organic materials in soil. They directly affect plant nutrient availability, and chemical and physical properties of soils. This investigation aimed at quantifying the effect of several organic materials on microbial activity of a Rhodic Eutrudox. Soil samples were incubated over a period of 91 days with the following organic materials: cattle manure (CM), earthworm humus (HM), and city sewage sludge from Barueri (BA) and Franca (FR). The activities of cellulase, protease and urease enzymes, the soil microbial carbon content (by fumigation-extraction method) and the exothermal effect were evaluated. Experimental design was randomized and arranged as factorial scheme five treatments x seven samplings with five replications. Organic materials promoted oscillations in microbial carbon (mg C g-1 soil), and enzyme activities - cellulase (µg glucose g-1 soil 24 h-1), protease (mg Tyr g-1 soil 2 h-1), urease (mg NH4+-N g-1 soil 2 h-1) - and the total thermal effect (J g-1 soil), in the following decreasing order: (1) CM - 21.47; 655.90; 49.68; 24.55; 477.90; (2) BA - 12.98; 367.70; 32.76; 10.66; 426.29; (3) FR - 11.60; 273.40; 18.77; 19.35; 368.00; (4) HM - 11.77; 261.00; 17.05; 9.02; 202.79; (5) control. Correlations were obtained between microbial carbon and cellulase and protease activities (r = 0.54; p < 0.001), and between the exothermal effect and protease activity (r = 0.34; p < 0.005). Enzyme activity was closely related to soil microorganisms, therefore, reflecting on the total thermal effect.