Abstract
Maintenance of soil quality is a key component of agriculture sustainability and there is an increase in the use of soil microbial parameters as sensitive indicators. This study aimed to determine the impact of different agricultural land uses on soil microbial biomass and also study the interrelationships between microbial biomass carbon (MBC, μgCg-1), Nitrogen (MBN, μgN g-1) and Phosphorus (MBP, μgC g-1) with the physicochemical characteristics of the soil. A total of 100 soil samples were taken from four different agricultural land uses viz., (cocoa plantation, grazed land, arable land and fallow land). Average MBC was 200.04 μgCg-1, 189.24 μgCg-1, 180.04 μgCg-1 and 129.18 μgCg-1; average MBN was 19.84 μgNg-1, 18.16 μgNg-1, 17.60 μgNg-1 and 12.74 μgNg-1 while the average MBP was 7.62 μgPg-1, 7.26 μgPg-1, 7.22 μgPg-1 and 6.40 μgPg-1 for cocoa plantation, grazed land, arable land and fallow land respectively. One-Way ANOVA showed a significant difference in microbial biomass C, N and P among the study areas. MBC, MBN and MBP were significantly correlated to the physico-chemical properties of the soil (P>0.05) under the same ecological conditions. The results may help to infer the best agricultural land-use strategies to improve soil fertility and can also be a useful indicator in evaluating soil quality and fertility.
