Korea Biochar Research Center and School of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, 24341, Korea.
Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38040, Pakistan.
Environ Geochem Health. 2017 Dec;39(6):1531-1544. doi: 10.1007/s10653-017-9998-2. Epub 2017 Jun 26.
Urban agricultural soils are highly variable, and careful selection of sensitive indicators is needed for the assessment of soil quality. This study is proposed to develop an index based on soil enzyme activities for assessing the quality of urban agricultural soils. Top soils were collected from urban agricultural areas of Korea, and soil chemical properties, texture, microbial fatty acids, and enzyme activities were determined. The soils belonged to five textural classes with the highest frequency of sandy loam. There was no clear correlation between the soil chemical properties and soil microbial properties. Principal component analysis (PCA) and factor analysis were applied to microbial groups for identification of microbial community variation in soils. Two soil groups, namely group 1 (G1) and group 2 (G2), based on microbial community abundance were examined by PCA, and those were more prominent in factor analysis. The G1 soils showed higher microbial community abundance than G2 soils. The canonical discriminant analysis was applied to the enzyme activities of sandy loam soil to develop an index, and the index validation was confirmed using the unused soils and published data. The high-quality soils in published literature assigned the high valued index. Microbial fatty acids and soil enzyme activities can be suitable indicators for soil quality evaluation of urban agricultural soils.
城市农业土壤具有高度变异性，因此需要仔细选择敏感指标来评估土壤质量。本研究旨在开发一种基于土壤酶活性的指数，用于评估城市农业土壤的质量。从韩国城市农业区采集表层土壤，测定土壤化学性质、质地、微生物脂肪酸和酶活性。土壤属于五个质地类别，以砂壤土为主。土壤化学性质与土壤微生物性质之间没有明显的相关性。应用主成分分析（PCA）和因子分析对微生物群落进行分析，以确定土壤中微生物群落的变化。基于微生物群落丰度，应用 PCA 对两个土壤群（G1 和 G2）进行了分析，在因子分析中更为明显。G1 土壤的微生物群落丰度高于 G2 土壤。对砂壤土的酶活性进行典型判别分析，建立了一个指数，并利用未使用的土壤和已发表的数据对该指数进行了验证。在已发表文献中，高质量的土壤被分配了高值的指数。微生物脂肪酸和土壤酶活性可以作为城市农业土壤质量评价的合适指标。
