Effects of land use on the amino acid composition of soils: 2. Soils from the Park Grass experiment and Broadbalk Wilderness, Rothamsted, England

Concentrations of amino acids were measured in hydrolysates of manured and unmanured soil samples collected in 1876 and 1959 from the Park Grass experiment, and in 1964 from the Broadbalk Wilderness plots. at Rothamsted, England. Discriminant analysis separated successfully the Park Grass treatment groups after the effect of absolute amino acid concentration had been removed. The same statistical procedure was used to compare samples of soil from the Park Grass and previously published data from the Broadbalk continuous wheat experiments. These comparisons suggest that an amino acid 'fingerprint' can distinguish between grassland and arable treatments. Further comparisons suggest that the Wilderness wooded soil fingerprint is distinguishable from both grassland and arable, but that the Wilderness grassland (rough grass) fingerprint is more like the (Park) grassland than either the Wilderness wooded or the arable fingerprints. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.