Search results for "Soil quality • Soil enzymes • C and N mineralisation-immobilisation • Microbial diversity • Nucleic acid- and fatty acid-based indicators"

Key Biochemical Attributes to Assess Soil Ecosystem Sustainability

2011

Soil is not a renewable resource, at least within the human timescale. In general, any anthropic exploitation of soils tends to disturb or divert them from a more “natural” development which, by definition, represents the best comparison term for measuring the relative shift from soil sustainability. The continuous degradation of soil health and quality due to abuse of land potentiality or intensive management occurs since decades. Soil microbiota, being ‘the biological engine of the Earth’, provides pivotal services in the soil ecosystem functioning. Hence, management practices protecting soil microbial diversity and resilience, should be pursued. Besides, any abnormal change in rate of in…