Abstract
An incubation experiment was conducted to determine the response of soil microbial biomass and activity to salinity when supplied with two different carbon forms. One nonsaline and three saline soils of similar texture (sandy clay loam) with electrical conductivities of the saturation extract (ECe) of 1, 11, 24 and 43 dS m−1 were used. Carbon was added at 2.5 and 5 g C kg−1 (2.5C, 5C) as glucose or cellulose; soluble N and P were added to achieve a C/N ratio of 20 and C/P ratio of 200. Soil microbial activity was assessed by measuring CO2 evolution continuously for 3 weeks; microbial biomass C and available N and P were determined on days 2, 7, 14 and 21. In all soils, cumulative respiration was higher with 5C than with 2.5C and higher with glucose than with cellulose. Cumulative respiration was highest in the nonsaline soil and decreased with increasing EC, whereas the decrease was gradual with glucose, there was a sharp drop in cumulative respiration with cellulose from the nonsaline soil to soil with EC11 with little further decrease at higher ECs. Microbial biomass C and available N and P concentrations were highest in the nonsaline soil but did not differ among the saline soils. Microbial biomass C was higher and available N was lower with 5C than with 2.5C. The C form affected the temporal changes of microbial biomass and available nutrients differentially. With glucose, microbial biomass was highest on day 2 and then decreased, whereas available N showed the opposite pattern, being lowest on day 2 and then increasing. With cellulose, microbial biomass C increased gradually over time, and available N decreased gradually. It is concluded that salinity reduced the ability of microbes to decompose cellulose more than that of glucose.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson JPE, Domsch KH (1978) A physiological method for the quantitative measurement of microbial biomass in soils. Soil Biol Biochem 10:215–221
Anderson JM, Ingram JSI (1993) Tropical soil biology and fertility: a handbook of methods. CAB International
Butterly CR, Marschner P, McNeill AM, Baldock JA (2010) Rewetting CO2 pulses in Australian agricultural soils and the influence of soil properties. Biol Fertil Soils 46:739–753
Chowdhury N, Marschner P, Burns R (2011) Response of microbial activity and community structure to decreasing soil osmotic and matric potential. Plant Soil 344:241–254
Hagemann M (2011) Molecular biology of cyanobacterial salt acclimation. FEMS Microbiol Rev 35:87–123
Hanson WC (1950) The photometric determination of phosphorus in fertilizers using the phosphovanado-molybdate complex. J Sci Food Agr 1:172–173
Hazelton PA, Murphy BW (2007) Interpreting soil test results, what do all the numbers mean? CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Vic
Hoyle F, Murphy D, Brookes P (2008) Microbial response to the addition of glucose in low-fertility soils. Biol Fertil Soils 44:571–579
Hu S, Van Bruggen AHC (1997) Microbial dynamics with multiphasic decomposition of 14C-labelled cellulose in soil. Microbial Ecol 33:134–143
Kitson R, Mellon M (1944) Colorimetric determination of phosphorus as molybdivanadophosphoric acid. Industr Engineer Chem Anal 16:379–383
Laura RD (1974) Effects of neutral salts on carbon and nitrogen mineralisation of organic matter in soil. Plant Soil 41:113–127
Li XG, Shi XM, Wang DJ, Zhou W (2012) Effect of alkalized magnesic salinity on soil respiration changes with substrate availability and incubation time. Biol Fertil Soils 48:1–6
Makino W, Cotner J, Sterner R, Elser J (2003) Are bacteria more like plants or animals? Growth rate and resource dependence of bacterial C: N: P stoichiometry. Funct Ecol 17:121–130
Marschner P (2012) Marschner’s mineral nutrition of higher plants. Academic, London
McKenzie H, Wallace HS (1954) The Kjeldahl determination of nitrogen: a critical study of digestion conditions—temperature, catalyst, and oxidizing agent. Aust J Chem 7:55–70
Murphy J, Riley J (1962) A modified single solution method for the determination of phosphate in natural waters. Anal Chim Acta 27:31–36
Olsen S, Sommers L (1982) Phosphorus. Methods of soil analysis. ASA and SSSA, Madison, pp 403–427
Oren A (1999) Bioenergetic aspects of halophilism. Microbiol Mol Biol R 63:334–348
Oren A (2001) The bioenergetic basis for the decrease in metabolic diversity at increasing salt concentrations: implications for the functioning of salt lake ecosystems. Hydrobiologia 466(1):61–72
Pankhurst C, Yu S, Hawke B, Harch B (2001) Capacity of fatty acid profiles and substrate utilization patterns to describe differences in soil microbial communities associated with increased salinity or alkalinity at three locations in South Australia. Biol Fertil Soils 33:204–217
Pathak H, Rao DLN (1998) Carbon and nitrogen mineralization from added organic matter in saline and alkali soils. Soil Biol Biochem 30:695–702
Pesaro M, Nicollier G, Zeyer J, Widmer F (2004) Impact of soil drying-rewetting stress on microbial communities and activities and on degradation of two crop protection products. Appl Environ Microbiol 70:2577–2587
Rayment G, Higginson F (1992) Australian laboratory handbook of soil and water chemical methods. Inkata, Sydney
Rengasamy P (2006) Soil salinity and sodicity. In: Stevens D (ed) Growing crops with reclaimed wastewater. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Vic
Rengasamy P (2008) Salinity in the landscape: a growing problem in Australia. Geotimes 53:34–39
Rengasamy P, Sumner M (1998) Processes involved in sodic behavior. In: Sumner M, Naidu R (eds) Sodic soils—distribution, properties, management and environmental consequences. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 35–50
Rietz DN, Haynes RJ (2003) Effects of irrigation-induced salinity and sodicity on soil microbial activity. Soil Biol Biochem 35:845–854
Sardinha M, Müller T, Schmeisky H, Joergensen RG (2003) Microbial performance in soils along a salinity gradient under acidic conditions. Appl Soil Ecol 23:237–244
Setia R, Marschner P (2012) Carbon mineralization in saline soils as affected by residue composition and water potential. Biol Fertil Soils. doi:10. 1007/s00374-012-0698-x 1-7
Setia R, Marschner P, Baldock J, Chittleborough D (2010) Is CO 2 evolution in saline soils affected by an osmotic effect and calcium carbonate? Biol Fertil Soils 46(8):781–792
Setia R, Smith P, Marschner P, Baldock J, Chittleborough DJ, Smith J(2011) Introducing a decomposition rate modifier in the Rothamsted carbon model to predict soil organic carbon stocks in saline soils. Environ Sci Technol 45:6396–6403
Shainberg I, Letey J (1984) Response of soils to sodic and saline conditions. Hilgardia 52:1–57
Stevenson FJ, Cole MA (1999) Cycles of soil: carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, micronutrients. Wiley, New York
Sylvia D, Fuhrmann J, Hartel P, Zuberer D (eds) (1999) Principles and applications of soil microbiology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey
Tezuka Y (1990) Bacterial regeneration of ammonium and phosphate as affected by the carbon: nitrogen: phosphorus ratio of organic substrates. Microbial Ecol 19:227–238
Thanh Nguyen B, Marschner P (2005) Effect of drying and rewetting on phosphorus transformations in red brown soils with different soil organic matter content. Soil Biol Biochem 37:1573–1576
Tripathi S, Kumari S, Chakraborty A, Gupta A, Chakrabarti K, Bandyapadhyay BK (2006) Microbial biomass and its activities in salt-affected coastal soils. Biol Fertil Soils 42:273–277
US Salinity Laboratory Staff (1954) Diagnosis and improvement of saline and alkali soils. USDA Handbook No. 60. U.S.Government Printing Office, Washington, DC
Vance E, Brookes P, Jenkinson D (1987) An extraction method for measuring soil microbial biomass C. Soil Biol Biochem 19:703–707
Walkley A, Black IA (1934) An examination of the Degtjareff method for determining soil organic matter, and a proposed modification of the chromic acid titration method. Soil Sci 37:29
Wu J, Brookes PC, Jenkinson DS (1993) Formation and destruction of microbial biomass during the decomposition of glucose and ryegrass in soil. Soil Biol Biochem 25:1435–1441
Yuan B-C, Li Z-Z, Liu H, Gao M, Zhang Y-Y (2007) Microbial biomass and activity in salt affected soils under arid conditions. Appl Soil Ecol 35:319–328
Zahran H (1997) Diversity, adaptation and activity of the bacterial flora in saline environments. Biol Fertil Soils 25:211–223
Acknowledgments
Bannur Elmajdoub thanks the Libyan government for the postgraduate research scholarship.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Elmajdoub, B., Marschner, P. Salinity reduces the ability of soil microbes to utilise cellulose. Biol Fertil Soils 49, 379–386 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-012-0734-x
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-012-0734-x