Deciphering Enzyme Activity, Bacterial Diversity, Microbial Biomass and Organic Content in Soil along a Latitudinal Gradient in NorthCentral India: Exploring Ways for Increased Crop Productivity

Abstract

The soil on Earth’s surface is characterized by the organic and mineral content in them. The activity of enzymes and microbial biomass present in it has significant impact on nutrient cycling which is directly related to fertility and crop yield in that area. In our study, samples of top soil were studied from four different locations in Nothern part of India, namely, Solan (Himachal Pradesh), Jagatpura (Punjab), Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh) and Satna (Madhya Pradesh), with respect to four pre-dominant soil enzymes viz. Dehydrogenase, Polyphenol oxidase, Urease and Catalase. The studies regarding spatial variation of activity of these four soil enzyme along with the microbial biomass content along the latitudinal gradient in North-central India are unclear in context with the national status. The present study facilitates the above mentioned assessment with respect to the effect of climatic variations, enzyme activity and biomass on nutrient cycling (organic carbon, available nitrogen and phosphorous) in respective agro-ecosystems. Along the increasing latitude, it was observed that organic carbon decreases whereas available phosphorous and available nitrogen increases (P<0.05). Further, it was seen that the amount of microbial biomass carbon (MBC) declined and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) increased (P<0.05). Polyphenol activity and urease activity was found to decrease and dehydrogenase activity showed an increasing trend. In addition, catalase activity showed no significant relation with latitude (P<0.05). In accordance with the present study, it can be inferred that the distribution of enzyme activities and microbial biomass may be the consequence of alterations in temperature and moisture of soil because of which soil properties like organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous change along the latitudinal transect.