Clay Research
  • Year: 2015
  • Volume: 34
  • Issue: 1

Monitoring of soil CO2 evolution and dehydrogenase activity under the influence of Trichoderma harzianum encapsulated nanoclay polymer composite

  • Author:
  • Raj Mukhopadhyay1,, DE Nirmal1, Tonoy Kumar Das2
  • Total Page Count: 10
  • Page Number: 25 to 34

1Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221 005

2Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110 012

*Corresponding author E-mail: rajssaciari@gmail.com, Room no-202, Shishir Hostel, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110012

Online published on 17 February, 2017.

Abstract

Monitoring of soil respiration and dehydrogenase activity (DHA) under the influence of Trichoderma harzianum encapsulated nanoclay polymer composite (TENCPC) was done to investigate the impact of TENCPC on soil CO2 evolution and the enzymatic activity, particularly dehydrogenase, which is an important indicator of soil health. Soil samples were collected from a long term fertilizer trial under dryland agriculture. The treatments were control (no nutrient supplemented)-T1, 100% recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) i.e. 80-40-30 kg ha−1 N: P: K-T2, 100% N through farm yard manure (FYM)-T3, 50% N through FYM-T4, 50% RDF + 50% N through FYM-T5 and farmer's general practice (20 kg N ha−1)-T6. At 4th hour, the average CO2 release from soil through microbial respiration was highest for T2 (100% RDF) i.e. 1.5 mg CO2-C/g soil/hr whereas, for control (T1), it was 0.6. At 4th hr, CO2-C evolution rate was highest at 2.40 CO2-C (mg/g soil/hr) for T3 treated with TENCPC @ 1 mg/100 g soil, incubated up to 168th hour, and lowest was under T1 i.e. 0.97. The application of TENCPC in soil also increased the soil DHA during both the years. After the application of TENCPC in soil, the maximum DHA was for T3 i.e. 70.4 TPF μg/g soil/day and minimum was for T1 i.e. 26.61, whereas, the corresponding value before the application of TENCPC was 64.2 and 25.7, respectively after 7 days of incubation.