Hossein REZAEI, Aliasghar JAFARZADEH, Nasser ALIASGHARZAD & Leila ALIPOOR
Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, University of Tabriz- Iran. E-Mail: hosseinrezaei@tabrizu.ac.ir, ajafarzadeh@tabrizu.ac.ir, n-aliasghar@tabrizu.ac.ir, mla1384@gmail.com

SOIL QUALITY INVESTIGATION BASED ON BIOLOGICAL AND MICROMORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS UNDER DIFFERENT LAND USES

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Soil is a vital resource for producing the food needed to support an increasing world population. Land uses can increase or decrease soil quality dependent on management type. This research work was carried out by investigation of different land use (alfalfa, corn, and apple) effect on soil quality and their comparison with bare soil as a control in Karkaj Agriculture Research Station of Tabriz University. After soil samples preparation, in addition to physical and chemical properties of soil, biological indicators of soil quality such as soil basal respiration (BR), substrate induced respiration (SIR), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN), microbial biomass phosphorus (MBP), metabolic quotient (qCO2), microbial biomass quotient (qmic), Acid and alkaline phosphatases activities (ACPA and ALPA) were determined. Also soil micromorphological properties such as microstructure, voids, organic component and excrement pedofeatures performed and studied as visual indicators in soil quality. Obtained results revealed significant effect of land use on all biological indicators except ALPA and MBP of soil quality. Descending order of soil quality from biological point of view is alfalfa cultivation, apple orchard, corn cultivation and bare soil respectively. Based on soil fabric study, visual quality descending was seen in apple orchard, alfalfa cultivation, corn cultivation and bare soil respectively. Generally, it seems that cultivations are not often lead to decrease soil quality; therefore agricultural practices can be useful to keep bare land from degradation.