ABSTRACT

Soil organic matter has vital role in maintaining important soil functions. Consequently, using sewage sludge as soil organic amendment is considered one of the agricultural practices for improving soil fertility, which is also a safe approach for its disposal. The present research was carried out to analyze the different microbial activities and functional diversity of agricultural soil with regard to sewage sludge application. A laboratory experiment was set up by taking the agricultural soil from Haryana Agricultural University fields and amended with 5, 10, 20, 30 and 50 t ha⁻¹ of sewage sludge. It was observed that soil microbial biomass increased upto 60% and potential activities of dehydrogenase, alkaline phosphatase and urease enzymes increased upto 50–55% with increasing application rates of sewage sludge. In addition the community-level physiological profiling technique (CLPP) based on carbon source utilization was used to determine the microbial functional diversity of soil. The results indicated higher functional diversity of microbial population capable of exploiting different carbon substrates with sewage sludge application. These results are imperative for improving the approach of sewage sludge application to the agricultural soil in consideration of increasing soil fertility with reducing the use of chemical fertilizers.

摘要

土壤有机质在维持重要的土壤功能方面起着至关重要的作用。因此，利用污泥作为土壤有机改良剂被认为是提高土壤肥力的农业实践之一，也是一种安全的处置方法。本研究旨在分析农业土壤在污水污泥施用方面的不同微生物活性和功能多样性。以哈里亚纳邦农业大学农田的农田土壤为基础，进行了实验室试验，并用 5、10、20、30 和 50 t ha ^{-1进行了修正。}的污水污泥。据观察，随着污水污泥施用量的增加，土壤微生物量增加了 60%，脱氢酶、碱性磷酸酶和脲酶的潜在活性增加了 50-55%。此外，基于碳源利用的群落水平生理分析技术（CLPP）被用来确定土壤的微生物功能多样性。结果表明，能够利用污水污泥应用的不同碳底物的微生物种群具有更高的功能多样性。考虑到通过减少化学肥料的使用来提高土壤肥力，这些结果对于改进将污水污泥应用于农业土壤的方法是必不可少的。