Microbial Biomass and Activity in a Calcareous Soil Amended with Municipal Solid Waste Compost

A.E. Shouman, Elsoury, A. H.; Abdelrazek, S.A.E.; Elkony, H. M.

doi:10.21608/asejaiqjsae.2015.2912

Microbial Biomass and Activity in a Calcareous Soil Amended with Municipal Solid Waste Compost

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Research Institute of Agricultural Engineering Agricultural Research Center, Egypt Institute of Environment Studies Research Ain Shams University, Egypt

² Soil, Water and Environment Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Cairo, Egypt

10.21608/asejaiqjsae.2015.2912

Abstract

The dynamics of soil health indicators such as microbial biomass , urease and acid phosphatase activities, in a calcareous soil amended with different doses of Borg Elarab municipal solid waste compost (MSWC) were studied over 120 days of incubation at 30^o C at 60% of soil water holding capacity. The parameters were found to increase with the increase in doses of MSWC. Soil microbial biomass (MB) activity reached peak values at 30 days of incubation and then gradually decreased up to 120 days of incubation. Urease and acid phosphatase activities showed peak values at 60 and 90 days of incubation, respectively. The increase in soil enzyme activities with the fall in MB suggested that the release of enzymes was associated with lysis of microbial cells at the end of their life cycle. There was no indication of any detrimental effect on soil health indicators of application of MSWC to soil
ples included 132 employees representing about 77.19% of the research population. The data was collected through questionnaires and personal interviews. The following are the main findings of the study:

The results show that 49% of the respondents need extensive training in all the studied forestry disciplines and that there is a significant correlation between the need for training and each of the independent variables (age, career service and origin). Besides, the three stated variables altogether explain about 33.7 % of the variance in the IKR forest and rangeland staff's' need for training. In light of the study findings, the recommendations was developing training plans and programs for the Iraqi Kurdistan region forest and rangeland staff in the prioritized topics the respondents desire to be trained in.

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