Microbial Biomass and Activities of Soils Amended with Municipal Solid Waste Compost

Laboratory incubation studies were conducted to observe the effect of municipal solid waste compost addition (@ 0 & 20 t ha⁻¹) on microbial biomass C and glucose-induced soil respiration, urease, and phosphatase activities of three soils (Typic Haplustalf, Typic Endoaquept and Aeric Endoaquept) of West Bengal. Data indicated that compost addition variably increased the microbial biomass C and soil respiration. Urease and phosphatase activities of the compostamended soils were also increased bot not commensurating to microbial biomass C and soil respiration. The reasons for these observations have been explained. Although heavy metals have been tied with municipal compost as a potential source of pollution, present study showed that the compost addition as high as 20 t ha⁻¹ apparently did not have any deleterious effect on the studied parameters.