Relationship among Different Soil Biochemical Methods to Determine Soil Health

Abstract

Numerous soil biochemical methods are used to determine the soil health status, but the relationships among these methods are not well understood. Relationships among soil biochemical tests, 1) chloroform fumigated microbial biomass C (CFMBC), 2) permanganate oxidizable C (POXC), 3) Solvita CO2-burst (Solvita), 4) Solvita labile amino nitrogen (SLAN), and short-term soil CO2 efflux during laboratory incubation using (v) Alkali-base trap (Alkali) and (vi) infrared gas analyzer (IRGA), were evaluated for nine agricultural soils collected across the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota, USA. Not a single test is comprehensive to relate with all soil biochemical tests. Coefficient of variation percentage for particular method varied with soil type. Among six tests, CFMBC is significantly (p < 0.05) related with Alkali (r = 0.37), Solvita (r = 0.57), SLAN (r = 0.52), and POXC (r = 0.68). Soil CFMBC correlates with most of soil biochemical tests and can be potential to determine soil biochemical condition.