Type of organic fertilizer rather than organic amendment per se increases abundance of soil biota.

ABSTRACT: Addition of organic amendments is a commonly used practice to offset potential loss of soil organic matter from agricultural soils. The aim of the present study was to examine how long-term addition of organic matter affects the abundance of different soil biota across trophic levels and the role that the quality of the organic amendments plays. Here we used a 17-year-old fertilization experiment to investigate soil biota responses to four different organic fertilizers, compared with two mineral nitrogen fertilizers and no fertilization, where the organic fertilizers had similar carbon content but varied in their carbon to nitrogen ratios. We collected soil samples and measured a wide range of organisms belonging to different functional groups and trophic levels of the soil food web. Long-

SUBMITTER: Viketoft M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8109005 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature