A proposal of new indices for soil microbial ecotoxicology
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2001 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Abstracts of SETAC 2001: 11th Annual Meeting of SETAC Europe; 6-10 May 2001, Madrid, Spain |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Ecology |
| Description | A classical chloroform fumigation-extraction method (CFEM) was carried out to obtain 0.5M K2SO4 extracts of fumigated (F) and non-fumigated (NF) samples of 36 grassland and 12 forest soils from Czech Republic. Main physical and chemical properties of soils were also determined and basal respiration (BR) of soils was measured. Organic C in extracts was determined by dichromate digestion. Anthrone-, orcinol-, and phenol-reactive C (ARC, ORC, and PRC, respectively), ninhydrin-reactive N (NRN), Folin-Ciocalteu's reagent-reactive compounds (FRC), and diphenylamine-reactive compounds (DRC) were assessed in extracts using colorimetric analytical methods. The methods used were found to be quick, simple and cheap. By this way biochemical specification of soil organic matter and microbial biomass was gained. Results of measurements were proposed to make several types of indices. The index expressions of measured parameters were found to be the most suitable for (a) evaluation and investigation of relationships between microbial biomass and soil organic matter, and for (b) soil organic matter composition studies. Three main types of indices were proposed: index I. as extracellular amount of each compound to microbial biomass, index II., "immobilization ratio", as proportion of each compound between soil extracellular organic matter and microbial biomass, and index III., "substrate quality index", as extracellular amount of each compound to extractable extracellular carbon (EX-C). The possibility of characterizing soil organic matter and microbial biomass C and N compounds by adopting suitable colorimetric methods is another practical advantage of CFEM and could show a possible course of improvement in soil microbial ecotoxicology. |
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