CHEMICAL AND MICROBIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF HUNGARIAN SANDY SOILS UNDER DIFFERENT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

The type and the management have strong effect on the composition and activity of microbial community and therefore on fertility of the soil. In this study ecological and conventional managements were compared in a sandy area of the Nyirseg (North-Eastern) region, Hungary. Soil samples were collected twice from the upper and lower part of the sloping study sites, in autumn 2012 and in spring 2013, from the 0-30 cm and 30-60 cm depth intervals. Beside the main physical and chemical soil properties, the community structure (phospholipid fatty acid characterization) and activity (invertase and catalase enzymes) of microbes were investigated. The recycled plant residues can buffering the negative environmental/human effects, decreases the differences between the chemical and microbiological results of two elevation positions, and results favourable conditions to the soil microbes. Higher pH, total and organic C content, total and nitrite-nitrate-N content, furthermore higher enzymatic activities were measured in the ecological than in conventional site. Our results showed that ecological management had positive effect on the quality and fertility of the sandy soils in the Nyirseg region by improving the chemical soil parameters and increasing the community size and the activity of microbes. Most of the measured parameters were more favourable in the 0-30 cm than the lower sampled layer.