TITLE:
Response of Soil Microbial Properties to Long-Term Application of Organic and Inorganic Amendments in a Tropical Soil (Saria, Burkina Faso)
AUTHORS:
Ndeye Hélène Diallo-Diagne, Komi Assigbetse, Saïdou Sall, Dominique Masse, Moussa Bonzi, Ibrahima Ndoye, Jean Luc Chotte
KEYWORDS:
Organic Amendments, Mineral Fertilizer, Microbial Biomass, Soil Enzyme Activities, PCR-DGGE, Crop Development Stages, Lixisol
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Soil Science,
Vol.6 No.2,
February
22,
2016
ABSTRACT: Soil
microbial biomass carbon (MBC), β-glucosidase,
acid phosphatase and fluorescein diacetate (FDA) activities and bacterial
community structure were assessed in a long-term (26 years) experiment, at
physiological stages of sorghum growth, comparing different management methods
for organic (manure, straw residues) and inorganic (urea) amendments at the
INERA field station in Saria (Burkina Faso). Annual application of manure led
to the highest soil microbial biomass and enzyme activities. Investigations
indicated that only microbial biomass and β-glucosidase
activities were affected during the cropping season. Phosphatase and FDA enzyme
activities did not depend on the crop development stages. The application of N
fertilizer modified phosphatase and FDA enzyme activities, the activities being
higher in soils amended with N fertilizer. The bacterial community structure
was analyzed by PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE)
targeting the eubacterial 16S rRNA gene. Cluster analysis of PCR-DGGE patterns
showed two major clusters, the first containing the mineral fertilization and
straw treatments and the second, the straw + urea, manure and manure + urea
treatments. Sorghum grain yields were the highest for manure treatments. In
this long-term experiment, applying straw did not produce a better grain yield
than that obtained in the un-amended plot.