Relationship of Some Soil Physical and Erodibility Factors with Biological Properties

Abstract

Agriculture is the most necessary sector to meet the food needs of the growing population. Knowing the fertility of soils is a necessary issue for food management. Evaluation of soil physical and biological properties, which are highly effective on productivity, is very important for sustainable management. In this study, the relationships between some soil physical (sand, clay, and silt) and erodibility factors (aggregate stability, structural stability index, clay content, and crust index) and biological properties (organic carbon, microbial biomass carbon, basal respiration, dehydrogenase enzyme activity, urease, and alkaline phosphatase) were investigated. Among the textural fractions, a low but statistically significant negative correlation (r = 0.22; p < .001) was obtained between sand content and alkaline phosphatase enzyme activity of soils, while positive correlations were found between crust formation index and dehydrogenase (r = 0.26; p < .001) and urease (r=0.33; p < .001) enzyme activities. Significant correlations were also found between biological traits. The highest relationship was found between microbial biomass carbon, basal respiration rate and aggregate stability (r=-0.36; p < .001). As a result of the study; it was revealed that there were significant relationships between physical parameters of soils and biological properties.