Soil degradation and amendment effects on soil properties, microbial communities, and plant growth

Abstract:

Human activities that disrupt soil properties are fundamentally changing ecosystems. Soil degradation, caused by anthropogenic disturbance can decrease microbial abundance and activity, leading to changes in nutrient availability, soil organic matter, and plant establishment. The addition of amendments to disturbed soils have the potential ameliorate these negative consequences. We studied the effects of soil degradation, via an autoclave heat shock method, and the addition of amendments (biochar and woodchips) on microbial activity, soil carbon and nitrogen availability, microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen content, and plant growth of ten plant species native to the semi-arid southwestern US. Relative to non-degraded soils, microbial activity, measured via extracellular enzyme assays, was significantly lower for all seven substrates assayed. These soils also had significantly lower amounts of carbon assimilated into microbial biomass but no change in microbial biomass nitrogen. Soil degradation had no effect on plant biomass. Amendments caused changes in microbial activity: biochar-amended soils had significant increases in potential activity with five of the seven substrates measured; woodchip amended soils had significant increases with two. Soil carbon increased with both amendments but this was not reflected in a significant change in microbial biomass carbon. Biochar-amended soils had increases in soil nitrogen availability but neither amendment caused changes in microbial biomass nitrogen. Biochar amendments had no significant effect on above- or belowground plant biomass while woodchips significantly decreased aboveground plant biomass. Results show that soil degradation decreases microbial activity and changes nutrient dynamics, but these are not reflected in changes in plant growth. Amendments provide nutrient sources and change soil pore space, which cause microbial activities to fluctuate and may, in the case of woodchips, increase plant drought stress. These results suggest that amendments can ameliorate the negative consequences of soil degradation but their effects are dependent on substrate quality, which influences plant growth and microbial responses.