Time variation of soil microbiological attributes under different uses

Abstract

Understanding the behavior and dynamics of soil microorganisms helps to evaluate land use practices that maintain and / or improve soil quality over time. The objective of this study was to evaluate soil quality in different areas based on microbial biomass, basal respiration and derivatives indices (metabolic quotient and microbial quotient) in two sampling periods. Four composed samples from three soil subsamples were collected in the 2012 and 2014 period in the layer of 0.00 to 0.10 m in seven distinct areas, with five areas in ecological restoration, a native forest remnant and an area of sugarcane cultivation. Data were subjected to analysis of variance, applying factorial, and the averages compared by Tukey test at 5% significance and multivariate by cluster analysis. The results indicate that, although the resilience of ecological restoration areas is relatively short, the development of the vegetation cover and the establishment of the microbial community were important to promote the improvement of soil quality.