| Abstrakt: |
Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of different soil textures and land use (natural and agricultural) on microbiological attributes, and the potential of these attributes to serve as discriminators of different soils used for conventional coffee growing in the Atlantic Forest domain. Methods: We evaluated the following physical and chemical attributes: texture, pH, organic matter content, and fertility. The evaluated microbiological attributes were microbial biomass carbon, microbial basal respiration, the metabolic quotient, microbial quotient, and the activity of several enzymes. We measured these variables in coffee plantations and adjacent forests in a Ferrasol and a Planosol. Results: The forest vegetation maintained higher microbial biomass carbon, microbial basal respiration, metabolic quotient, and urease activity independently of soil texture. Nevertheless, the Planosol’s sandy texture had a marked negative effect on microbial biomass in the coffee plantation. Most enzyme activities were higher in the forest’s clayey soil and lower in the sandy soil under coffee cultivation. Conclusions: We conclude that soil texture and land use has a marked effect on microbiological attributes used as indicators, showing higher values in clayey soils and in forests. The microbial biomass carbon, phosphorus, organic matter content, fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis, urease activity, remaining phosphorus, pH, potential cation exchange capacity, acid phosphatase activity, microbial basal respiration, potential acidity, copper, and zinc exhibited greater capacity to discriminate sites under coffee plantations and forest. |
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