Early warning indicators of changes in soil ecosystem functioning |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, USA;2. Department of Biology, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, USA;3. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA;4. Department of Landscape Architecture, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA;1. Chongqing Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Chongqing 401147, China;2. Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China;3. Karst Dynamics Laboratory, Institute of Karst Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Guilin 541004, China;1. College of Ecology and Environment, Hainan University, Haikou, 570228, China;2. Key Laboratory of Agro-Forestry Environmental Processes and Ecological Regulation of Hainan Province, Haikou, 570228, China;3. Center for Eco-Environmental Restoration Engineering of Hainan Province, Haikou, 570228, China;4. State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan, 570228, China;5. Key Laboratory for Environmental Toxicology of Haikou, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan, 570228, China;6. College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518061, China;7. Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Haidian District, Beijing, 100097, China;1. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Land and Water Business Unit, Environmental Contaminant Mitigation and Biotechnology Program, Waite Campus, Waite Road, Urrbrae, 5064, South Australia, Australia;2. University of Florida, Soil and Water Sciences Department, 1692 McCarty Dr Gainesville, Florida, 32611, USA |
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| Abstract: | In the last decades, soil is facing numerous environmental threats and climatic changes that are causing a rapid decline of soil fertility and biodiversity. Soil organic matter (SOM), has the most widely recognized influence on soil quality, but it hardly puts in evidence processes associated to the new soil threats, because of its insensitivity in assessing soil quality changes in the short-term. A series of chemical and biochemical analyses were carried out in agricultural and forestry soil ecosystems subjected to different threats, to identify the parameters that better evidence changes in soil characteristics in a short term, but the identification of basic universal indicators and the choice of the number of estimated measures are still under investigation and discussion. The main aim of this paper was to identify biochemical markers to be used routinely and applicable to different soil ecosystems, as early warning indicators of alteration in soil ecosystem functioning. The results obtained allowed to identify three indicators, microbial biomass (MBC), water soluble phenols (WSP), and fluorescein diacetate hydrolase (FDA), as effective tools in the evaluation of soil quality changes in the short term, showing also a threat-indicator specificity. MBC reflected changes mainly induced by abiotic stress, FDA displayed modification caused by climate, and WSP pointed out alteration due to the organic amendment. |
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| Keywords: | Agriculture ecosystem Biological indicators Forest ecosystem Soil organic matter Soil quality |
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