Comparison of methods to measure microbial biomass in unamended, ryegrass-amended and fumigated soils
1996
Lin, Q. | Brookes, P.C.
Thirteen soils, differing in pH, clay content, soil organic C and management, were kept at 25 degrees C either unamended, amended with ryegrass (2% w/w) or amended with ryegrass and then fumigated for 10 or 20 d. The amount of soil microbial biomass was then determined in each soil by the fumigation-extraction method (FE), substrate-induced respiration (SIR) and by soil adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) content. The aim of this work was to try to change the community structure of the soil microbial biomass by the different soil treatments and then to see if this could be detected by the above methods. Highly statistically significant linear correlations were generally found (r = 0.63-0.98) between these methods, irrespective of treatments. This work shows that the biomass in unamended, fumigated or ryegrass-amended soils has the same SIR response and ATP concentration although its activity and possibly its community structure are different.
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