Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 May 10:5:565.
doi: 10.1186/s40064-016-2264-8. eCollection 2016.

The impact of agricultural soil usage on activity and abundance of ammonifying bacteria in selected soils from Poland

Agnieszka Wolińska  1 , Anna Szafranek-Nakonieczna  1 , Artur Banach  1 , Mieczysław Błaszczyk  2 , Zofia Stępniewska  1
Affiliations

The impact of agricultural soil usage on activity and abundance of ammonifying bacteria in selected soils from Poland

Agnieszka Wolińska et al. Springerplus. .

Abstract

The aim of the study was to demonstrate the impact of soil agricultural usage on the abundance of ammonifying bacteria (AB) and their activity, expressed as arginine ammonification (AA). Five agriculturally exploited types of soils (FAO): Haplic Luvisol, Brunic Arenosol, Mollic Gleysol, Eutric Fluvisol, and Rendzina Leptosol were studied. The controls were non-agricultural soils of the same type located in close proximity to agricultural sites. The tested soils varied in terms of pH (4.18-7.08), total carbon (8.39-34.90 g kg(-1)), easily degradable carbon content (0.46-1.11 g kg(-1)), moisture (5.20-13.50 %), and nitrogen forms (mg kg(-1)): 1.68-27.17, 0.036-0.862, 0.012-3.389 for nitrate nitrogen, nitrite nitrogen, and ammonia nitrogen, respectively. The AB abundance in agricultural soils ranged from 1.1 to 6.4 × 10(4) cfu g(-1), while in the controls it was significantly higher-from 2.0 to 110 × 10(4) cfu g(-1) of soil. Also, AA in the controls was three-times higher than in the agricultural soils. Strong associations between AA and the abundance of AB in the control (r = 0.954***) and agricultural soils (r = 0.833***) were proved. In the agricultural soils, the AB abundance and AA were influenced by pH (r = 0.746*** and r = 0.520***) and carbon content (r = 0.488*** and r = 0.391***). The AB abundance was also affected by easily degradable carbon (r = 0.517**) and nitrite nitrogen (r = 0.376*), whilst ammonium nitrogen influenced AA (r = 0.451*). Our results indicate that the abundance of AB and AA may be good indicators of soil biological conditions.

Keywords: Agricultural soil usage; Ammonifying bacteria; Arginine ammonification; Nitrogen forms; pH.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The content of NH4-N produced by arginine ammonification in agricultural and control soils. Average values with standard error are presented
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
MPN of ammonifying bacteria in agricultural and control soils. Average values with standard error are presented
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alef K, Kleiner D. Applicability of arginine ammonification as indicator of microbial activity in different soils. Biol Fertil Soils. 1987;5:148–151. doi: 10.1007/BF00257650. - DOI
    1. ASTM D2216-10 (1999) Standard test methods for laboratory determination of water (moisture) in soil and rock by mass. Am Soc Test Mat 1–5
    1. Bach EM, Baer SG, Six J. Plant and soil responses to high and low diversity grassland restoration practices. Environ Manage. 2012;49:412–424. doi: 10.1007/s00267-011-9787-0. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Banach AM, Banach K, Visser EJW, Stępniewska Z, Smits AJM, Roelofs JGM, Lamers LPM. Effects of summer flooding on floodplain biogeochemistry in Poland; implications for increased flooding frequency. Biogeochemistry. 2009;92:247–262. doi: 10.1007/s10533-009-9291-2. - DOI
    1. Bhuyan SI, Tripathi OP, Khan ML. Effect of season, soil and land use pattern on soil N-mineralization, ammonification and nitrification: a study in Arunachal Pradesh, eastern Himalaya. Int J Environ Sci. 2014;5(1):88–97.

LinkOut - more resources