Ecological aspect of soil extracellular enzymatic activities and their role in soil carbon sequestration under contrasting habitats

Abstract

There is a hidden world of enzymes inhabiting the soils of globe which is consecutively solving the problems that we are facing and creating incessantly with growing human civilization. Carbon- the backbone of life on earth is getting disturbed and imbalanced in various components of the biosphere, in turn creating tribulations which will be very difficult to revoke in future. Present study is an effort to understand the role of soil enzymes in sequestration of carbon towards its sink i.e. soil, in order to get the answers for questions arising with expeditiously deteriorating soil health across the globe. Therefore, this study was designed with five contrasting soils i.e. agriculture, barren, garden, reserve forest and Pinus dominated forest supplied with six soil amendments viz. two chemical fertilizers, two organic amendments, water stress and control. Results indicated an increase in enzymatic activities in response to nutrient additions and are found to be positively correlated with carbon concentration of contrasting soils. Thus, present study concludes that what has been extracted from the soils, need to be given back in order to facilitate enzymes and microorganisms to solve the problem of worsening soil quality and to newlineattain healthy soil ecosystems.