Abstract

PASTOR MOGOLLON, José; MARTINEZ, Alicia  and  TORRES, Duilio. Efecto de la aplicación de vermicompost en las propiedades biológicas de un suelo salino-sódico del semiárido venezolanoEffect of vermicompost on the biological properties of a saline-sodic soil in a semi-arid region of Venezuela. Bioagro [online]. 2016, vol.28, n.1, pp.029-038. ISSN 1316-3361.

Chemical degradation of soils are widely distributed in the world, and their recovery can be based on application of amendments. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of vermicompost on the biological properties of a saline-sodic soil in the locality El Cebollal, in Coro, Venezuela. An experiment was performed to compare different doses of vermicompost using the following four treatments: (T1) a control, without vermicompost; (T2) 1 % vermicompost; (T3) 5 % vermicompost, and (T4) 10 % vermicompost. An incubation period of 28 days was applied, with measurements at 7, 14, 21, and 28 days. In each date the organic carbon (OC), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), urease activity (UA), and the index of available carbon (MBC/OC * 100) were evaluated. The OC increased in all vermicompost treatments, with the highest values ​​in T4 (6.7 g·kg^-1) and the lowest in the control (2.5 g·kg^-1). Likewise, the MBC resulted in a significant increase, being the highest also ​​in T4 (612.5 µg·g^-1) and the lowest in the control (36.4 µg·g^-1). The UA increased significantly with the addition of vermicompost. After 28 days of incubation we found values for NH₄⁺​​ of 67.8 mg·g^-1 in T4, which represents a six-fold increase as compared to the control treatment. The addition of vermicompost proved to be a good strategy for biological recovery of saline-sodic soils.  

Keywords : Enzyme activity; microbial biomass; salinity; soil recovery.

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