Microbial biomass in agricultural topsoils after 6 years of bare fallow

Inherent soil properties have an influence on microbial activity. These effects were measured in a field trial at Weihenstephan with 30 agricultural and 2 vineyard soils from different sites in Bavaria which had been kept under bare fallow for 6 years. The soils represented a wide range of arable soils from a temperate climate. Unaffected by recent differences in climatic conditions or cropping managements, they were used to assess the relationship between microbial biomass C and a broad spectrum of soil physical and chemical properties (clay content 5-63%, pH 4.5-7.5, organic C 0.55-2.93%). Microbial C was measured using the substrate-induced respiration method. In addition, soil catalase activity and the abundance and biomass of earthworms were determined. Among the soil properties, microbial C was most strongly correlated with organic C (r = 0.86, n = 29). In a comparison of linear regressions between microbial biomass C and organic C for different cropping managements, the slope under bare fallow was lowest, followed by monoculture and crop rotation. The microbial:organic C ratio ranged from 1.1 to 4.3% and was significantly correlated with soil pH (r = 0.66). A positive relationship between microbial C and the clay content (r = 0.66) was significantly improved when soils with more than 25% clay were excluded (r = 0.80). Partial correlation analysis indicated that clay had a direct influence, hardly affected by an intercorrelation with organic C. Catalase activity was highly correlated with microbial C (r = 0.95) and, because a rapid and sensitive method of determination is available, was considered suitable for estimating relative amounts of active microbial biomass. A positive relationship between microbial C and the abundance of earthworms indicated interactions between microorganisms and mesofauna.