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Urease activity in soil as a factor affecting the succession of ammonia fungi

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Journal of Forest Research

Abstract

We studied the activity of urease in soils of Castanopsis cuspidata, Quercus serrata, and Chamaecyparis obtusa forests in western Japan to determine why succession of ammonia fungi takes place synchronously on soils treated simultaneously with the same level of urea among different vegetation types regardless of the time of year that the treatments are conducted. The activity was determined by the amount of urea remaining after urea addition and incubation on three soil layers, O, A, and B, on nine occasions. As a result, we found that the activity was significantly the highest in the O layer, that it did not differ according to vegetation type, and that it did not change through sampling occasions. The results indicate that the O layer is strongly implicated in generating favorable conditions for ammonia fungus proliferation by its overwhelming ability to decompose urea to ammonia. In soils treated simultaneously with urea, it appears that the ammonium-N concentration increases in similar patterns among different types of vegetation and at different times of the year.

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Author notes

  1. Akio Imamura & Takakazu Yumoto

    Present address: Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, 457-4 Kamigamo-motoyama, Kita-ku, Kyoto, 603-8047, Japan

  2. Junta Yanai

    Present address: Laboratory of Soil Chemistry, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto Prefectural University, Kyoto, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Akio Imamura

  2. Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Kamitanakami-hirano-cho, Otsu, Japan

    Takakazu Yumoto

  3. Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Junta Yanai

Authors
  1. Akio Imamura
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  2. Takakazu Yumoto
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  3. Junta Yanai
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Correspondence to Akio Imamura.

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Imamura, A., Yumoto, T. & Yanai, J. Urease activity in soil as a factor affecting the succession of ammonia fungi. J For Res 11, 131–135 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10310-005-0195-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10310-005-0195-2

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