Effects of Periodic Application of Cattle Slurry on Soil Microbial Biomass in an Andisol Grassland

摘要

Dairy farming is an important agricultural industry in northeastern of Japan. Large amounts of cattle wastes are produced in dairy farms. Most of the wastes are used in the production of compost. In some cases, slurry originating from cattle waste is periodically applied to farmlands as a fertilizer. Mizota el al. (2006) investigated the fate of nitrogen compounds in the soil after the application of cattle slurry to an Andisol grassland with a focus on temporal changes in chemical composition and the natural abundance of nitrogen isotopes. Although they mentioned that microbial action might contribute to the transformation of nitrogen in the soil, the microbial characteristics of the study site have not been investigated. The purpose of this study is to investigate the microbial response of grassland soils after the application of cattle slurry.