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Soil Enzyme Activities of Long‐Term Reclaimed Wastewater‐Irrigated Soils
Author(s) -
Chen Weiping,
Wu Laosheng,
Frankenberger William T.,
Chang Andrew C.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of environmental quality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1537-2537
pISSN - 0047-2425
DOI - 10.2134/jeq2007.0315
Subject(s) - biogeochemical cycle , soil water , reclaimed water , nutrient cycle , cycling , urease , catalase , nutrient , environmental science , wastewater , irrigation , environmental chemistry , dehydrogenase , agronomy , chemistry , ecology , environmental engineering , biology , enzyme , soil science , biochemistry , history , archaeology
Studies have shown that physical and chemical properties of soils may be significantly changed when they are subjected to long‐term reclaimed water irrigation. It remains unclear how reclaimed water application may affect nutrient cycling in soils. Soil enzymes are responsible for the biogeochemical cycling of many elements and are more sensitive indicators of the ecological changes. In this study, 17 soil enzymes, including those associated with the C, N, P, and S cycles and two oxidoreductases (catalase and dehydrogenase), were assayed in soils obtained from five long‐term reclaimed wastewater irrigation sites in southern California. The soil enzyme activities varied widely among the sampling sites. Compared with their respective controls, the overall activities of enzymes involved in the cycling of the four elements in soil were enhanced by an average of 2.2‐ to 3.1‐fold. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis indicated that the soil microbial functional diversity may be evaluated based on activities of catalase, alkaline phosphatase, acid phosphatase, dehydrogenase, and urease.