Flush of CO2 as a Soil Biological Quality Indicator

Franzluebbers, Alan J.; Haney, Richard L.

Flush of CO2 as a Soil Biological Quality Indicator

2006

Franzluebbers, Alan J. | Haney, Richard L.

Soil microbial biomass is an active part of soil organic matter that plays a key role in the decomposition of organic materials, nutrient cycling, and formation of soil structure. Measurement of soil microbial biomass has been proposed with a number of biochemical procedures, which vary in their sensitivity, procedural complications, and relationship to other active soil organic matter pools. Across a number of soils, the flush of CO2 following rewetting of dried soil was closely related to (1) the flush of CO2 following fumigation with chloroform, (2) potential C mineralization, and (3) potential N mineralization. Both chloroform fumigation-incubation and rewetting of dried soil utilize the activity of the surviving native soil microbial community to evaluate the soil microbial biomass. We describe how the flush of CO2 can be used to discriminate changes in soil biological quality induced by various agricultural management practices under different soil conditions.

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