Abstract

DE-POLLI, Helvécio; COSTANTINI, Alejandro; ROMANIUK, Romina  and  SAMPAIO PIMENTEL, Márcio. Chloroform  fumigation-extraction  labile C pool  (microbial biomass C "plus") shows high correlation to microbial biomass C in Argentinian and Brazilian soils. Cienc. suelo [online]. 2007, vol.25, n.1, pp.15-22. ISSN 1850-2067.

Chloroform fumigation-incubation and chloroform fumigation-extraction approaches have significantly contributed to assess soil microbial biomass. Some controversy is found in the literature about the suggestion to calculate microbial biomass carbon (MBC) without the subtraction of the un-fumigated control, in opposition to the originally proposed method that requires such subtraction. Some authors consider the non-subtraction proceeding as a more robust method. Nevertheless, values obtained without subtraction of a control include other labile organic fractions of soil carbon besides microbial biomass. Therefore, due to the usefulness of this measurement we consider more appropriate to call it as chloroform-fumigation labile C pool or microbial biomass carbon "plus" (MBC PLUS). We used a vast series of data from soils of Argentina and Brazil under different management situations to verify whether MBC correlates to MBC PLUS. There was a significant statistical correlation between values of MBC obtained by fumigation-extraction method and the corresponding MBC PLUS. The MBC PLUS performed as well as MBC as an indicator to differentiate soil managements and their impact on soil quality.

Keywords : Microbial biomass carbon; Labile carbon; Chloroform fumigation-extraction; Soil quality indicator.

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