Open AccessEnzyme activity in soil after different procedures for managing rice straw
Author(s) -
Remedios Albiach,
Fernando Pomares,
Marta Ribó,
Ana Pérez Piqueres,
Rodolfo Canet
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
recursos rurais
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2255-5994
pISSN - 1885-5547
DOI - 10.15304/rr.id4501
Subject(s) - compost , straw , biomass (ecology) , soil enzyme , rice straw , chemistry , agronomy , field experiment , zoology , enzyme assay , environmental science , biology , enzyme , biochemistry
Severe problems are caused by site burning of rice straw in Valencia, the third largest Spanish city. Removal, incorporation or composting are being tested as alternatives to burning, and the changes they produce in selected soil biological properties have been studied in two field trials. One compares removal, burning and incorporation the straw, and a second evaluates the application of straw-derived compost for rice production. No statistically-significant effects on the measured indicators of biological activity were found in either experiment, indicating that management-induced changes are small. Unexpectedly, burning did not affect negatively enzyme activities or microbial biomass contents since there were no differences between treatments, or usual levels were recovered in a few months. The changes induced by straw removal or incorporation were also not statistically significant. When straw-derived compost applications were assayed, dehydrogenase activity was slightly variable and apparently unaffected by N and compost rates or compost/mineral N combinations, but phosphomonosterase activity seems to increase parallel to compost to mineral N ratio.