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Microbiological attributes as indicators of soil quality in coffee growing systems in Southwest Bahia, Brazil

  • Soil and Agricultural Microbiology - Research Paper
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Abstract

Microorganisms are important indicators of soil quality due to their sensitivity to changes, reflecting the impacts caused by different land uses. The objective of this study was to evaluate the microbiological and physical–chemical attributes of the soil in areas cultivated with coffee under three different management systems (shaded coffee and full sun coffee with two spacings), as well as in adjacent areas under pasture and native forest, in Bahia, Brazil. The microbiological and physicochemical indicators evaluated were basal soil respiration (MBR), soil total organic carbon (TOC), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), metabolic quotient (qCO2), microbial quotient (qMic), enzyme activities (urease, acid phosphatase and fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis (FDA)). Physical and chemical indicators (particle size, texture, pH, P, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Al3+, and sum of bases) were also evaluated. Biological and chemical attributes were much more discriminative of study areas in the dry season. Microbial quotient (qMic) and metabolic quotient (qCO2) in the dry season showed that pasture is the most degraded land use. Conversely, nature forest and coffee with Grevillea were similar and were the best ones. In general, soil quality indicators were more sensitive to discriminate pasture and native forest from coffee systems, which, in turn, were not well discriminated among themselves.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia (Fapesb), and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) (Processes 310015/2021-9 and 406658/2022-6) for financial support and for granting scholarships. This research is associated with the Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia Biodiversidade do Solo (National Institute of Science and Technology—Soil Biodiversity/INCT-CNPq).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural and Soil Engineering, State University of Southwest Bahia, Vitória da Conquista/BA, Brazil

    Elismar Pereira de Oliveira, Anny Karoline Rocha Quirino Martins, Alexandra Damascena Santos, Divino Levi Miguel & Patrícia Lopes Leal

  2. Department of Soil Sciences, Federal University of Lavras, Lavras, MG, Brazil

    Silva Maria de Oliveira Longatti & Fatima Maria de Souza Moreira

  3. Federal Institute of Pará, Breves/Pará, Brazil

    Osnar Obede da Silva Aragão

  4. Multidisciplinary Institute in Health, Federal University of Bahia, Vitória da Conquista, Brazil

    Leandro Martins de Freitas & Patrícia Lopes Leal

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  1. Elismar Pereira de Oliveira
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Pereira de Oliveira, E., Rocha Quirino Martins, A.K., de Oliveira Longatti, S.M. et al. Microbiological attributes as indicators of soil quality in coffee growing systems in Southwest Bahia, Brazil. Braz J Microbiol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42770-024-01279-0

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