Soil biomass carbon, basal respiration and carbon kinetics of two eroded soils amended with biosolids

Abstract

The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the effect of the incorporation of three doses of biosolids (0, 25 and 40 t/ha) to soils eroded by mining extraction and water erosion, on the microbial biomass carbon, basal respiration and kinetics of min-eralized carbon at 7, 30, 180 and 360 days after incorporating the biosolids. The results showed an increase in the basal respiration and the metabolic coefficient at 7 and 360 days in both soils, respectively, after the addition of 40 t/ha of biosolids. In the soils eroded by mining extraction, the microbial biomass carbon was higher in the control treatment (M0, 0 t/ha of biosolids) after 30 days of the incorporation, while for the soil with water erosion the highest content occured in H25 (25 t/ha of biosolids) during the first seven days. Finally, the addition of biosolids favored the kinetics of carbon mineralization (Cm) so that the treatments with biosolids presented higher values with respect to the control soil.