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a
Key Laboratory of Horticulture in Liaoning, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110161, China
College of Land Recourses and Environmental Science, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110161, China
c
Agricultural College, Guangxi University, Nanning, Guangxi 530005, China
d
Institute of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences, Volcani Center, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel
Received 9 January 2007; received in revised form 12 July 2007; accepted 5 November 2007
Abstract
Different fertilizers may affect soil enzymatic activity and soil fertility dynamics. These effects were investigated in a field experiment with
cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) and the relationship with yield and soil nutrient availability was assessed. Soil enzymatic activity, measured as
phosphatase, catalase, invertase and urease activities, decreased in the early growth stages of cucumber, but increased in the late ones, when plant
were supplied with partially decomposed horse manure. Chemical N fertilizer inhibited soil enzymatic activity but P and K fertilizers enhanced it.
Activity of different soil enzymes was positively correlated with soil NH4+N and available P concentration, but negatively correlated with leaf N
and P concentration. Cucumber yield was also positively correlated with the soil enzymatic activity. Our results demonstrate that soil enzymatic
activity acted as a useful indicator of soil fertility dynamics.
# 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Keywords: Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.); Fertilization; Soil nutrients; Soil enzymes; Soil fertility
1. Introduction
Soil enzymes are derived primarily from soil fungi, bacteria,
plant roots, microbial cells, plant and animal residues, etc.
(Brown, 1973; Cao et al., 2003; Tarafdar and Marschner, 1994)
and play a significant role in mediating biochemical
transformations involving organic residue decomposition and
nutrient cycling in soil (Martens et al., 1992; McLatchey and
Reddy, 1998). Land management and utilization methods, crop
species and cultivation systems etc. can affect soil enzymatic
activity. Thus, this parameter can be used as a sensitive index to
reveal changes of soil quality due to land management, and to
monitor soil microorganism activity related to soil nutrient
transformation. Yang et al. (2005) indicated that soil enzymatic
activity was lower with increasing soil depth, e.g. soil
enzymatic activity in the 010 cm layer was significantly
higher than that in the 1020 cm layer. Bergstrom and Monreal
(1998) studied the relationship between soil enzymatic activity
* Corresponding author. Fax: +86 771 3235314.
** Corresponding author. Fax: +86 24 88421016.
E-mail addresses: tianlai@mail.sy.ln.cn (T. Li), zhenz@gxu.edu.cn (F. Li).
0304-4238/$ see front matter # 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.
doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2007.11.001
22
Fig. 1. Cucumber yield (kg h m2) under different fertilization treatments. CK,
no fertilization; M, organic manure; MN, organic manure + N; MNP, organic
manure + NP; MNK, organic manure + NK; and MNPK, organic manure + NPK.
Table 1
Soil enzymatic activity in different fertilization treatments during growing season of cucumber
Treatment
CK
M
MN
MNK
MNP
MNPK
1.68 0.31ab
1.53 0.51b
1.61 0.36b
1.92 0.43a
1.93 0.58a
1.86 0.42ab
1.56 0.09a
1.58 0.13a
1.41 0.15b
1.48 0.07ab
1.44 0.05b
1.51 0.06ab
2.13 0.28a
2.01 0.56a
1.93 0.31a
2.11 0.30a
2.05 0.26a
2.15 0.40a
2.06 0.18b
2.09 0.27ab
1.79 0.29c
2.08 0.24b
2.07 0.29b
2.23 0.30a
CK, no fertilization; M, organic manure; MN, organic manure + N; MNP, organic manure + NP; MNK, organic manure + NK; and MNPK, organic manure + NPK.
Values represent mean standard error (n = 12). Means in the same column are significant at P0.05 level with different letters, not significant at P0.05 level with the
same letters.
23
Table 2
Soil enzymatic activity in various growth stages of cucumber
Growth stage
Date
Early growth
Early-mid growth
Mid-late growth
Late growth
29DAT
56DAT
70DAT
90DAT
1.15 0.20
2.12 0.18
1.81 0.17
1.87 0.32
1.40 0.05
1.59 0.07
1.51 0.04
1.48 0.16
1.64 0.21
2.45 0.11
2.00 0.10
2.16 0.18
1.71 0.13
2.28 0.15
2.21 0.16
2.01 0.20
c
a
b
b
c
a
ab
bc
c
a
b
b
c
a
a
b
Values represent mean standard error (n = 18). Different letters in the same column indicate statistically significant differences at P0.05 level.
Fig. 2. Soil available nutrient concentrations (mg kg1) during the growth stages of cucumber. CK, no fertilization; M, organic manure; MN, organic manure + N;
MNP, organic manure + NP; MNK, organic manure + NK; and MNPK, organic manure + NPK.
24
Fig. 3. Leaf N and leaf P concentrations (g kg1) during the growth stages of cucumber. CK, no fertilization; M, organic manure; MN, organic manure + N; MNP,
organic manure + NP; MNK, organic manure + NK; and MNPK, organic manure + NPK.
25
Table 3
Correlation between soil and leaf nutrient concentration and soil enzymatic activity
Enzyme activity
Total enzyme
Phosphatase
Catalase
Invertase
Urease
Leaf total N
**
0.62
0.51*
0.42*
0.48*
0.63**
Leaf total P
**
0.73
0.60**
0.60**
0.66**
0.43*
Soil NO3N
0.37
0.21
0.61**
0.37
0.46*
Soil NH4+N
**
0.93
0.80**
0.69**
0.86**
0.86**
Soil available P
0.61**
0.44*
0.57**
0.59**
0.61**
Note: P0.01 = 0.515, P0.05 = 0.404. (**) and (*) indicate significant correlation with n = 24 at P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively.
Table 4
Correlation between soil enzymatic activity, soil and leaf nutrient concentration and cucumber yield
Parameter
Phosphatase activity
Catalase activity
Invertase activity
Urease activity
Correlation coefficient
Parameter
Correlation coefficient
0.85**
Soil NO3N
0.35
0.66**
Soil NH4+N
0.78**
0.78**
Soil alkali hydrolytic N
0.63**
0.76**
Soil available P
0.78**
0.87**
Leaf total N
0.51*
Leaf total P
0.84**
Note: P0.01 = 0.515, P0.05 = 0.404, n = 24. (**) and (*) indicate significant correlation with n = 24 at P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively.
Cucumber yield was positively correlated with total enzymatic activities of the four enzymes and each enzyme activity in
soil, soil NH4+N, alkali hydrolytic N and available P
concentrations at P0.01 level, but negatively correlated with leaf
N and P concentrations even at P0.05 level (Table 4), respectively.
The possible reason for this is that leaf nutrients were moved into
fruits in LG stage. And high levels of soil enzymes activity
accelerated the mineralization of organic matter in soil releasing
more essential nutrients such as N, P and S, required for better
plant growth and high yields. Verstraete (1977) indicated that
there were positive correlations between crop yield and soil
phosphatase, invertase and urease activities, respectively. Li
(1986) also reported that black soil enzymatic activity correlated
positively with corn yield. In this study, the highest correlation
coefficients were urease activity (R = 0.87) and total enzymatic
activities (R = 0.85). If cucumber yield is used for the index of
vegetable soil productivity, thus total enzymatic activities may
also be used for the index of vegetable soil productivity.
5. Conclusions
We found that enzymatic activity in vegetable field varied
greatly in different seasons, with higher activity during the
vigorous growth stage of cucumber, but lower activity during
the early and late growth stages. Different fertilizers also
affected the enzymatic activity in the soil. Soil enzymatic
activities decreased in the early growth stage but increased in
the late growth stage when treated with partially decomposed
horse manure.
Chemical N fertilizer could suppress the activities of soil
enzymes but P and K fertilizers increased such activities. The
activities of soil enzymes were positively correlated with
concentrations of soil NH4+N and available P concentration,
but negatively correlated with leaf N and P concentrations of
cucumber. There was also a positive correlation between
cucumber yield and soil enzymatic activity. Our results
demonstrate that soil activity can be an indicator for dynamic
changes of soil fertility.
26
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the research grants from Liaoning PhD
Science Fund and Guangxi Education Department Project
(2006-26).
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