Oxidation of pipecolic acid in soils and in rhizosphere soil of different plants.

Abstract

Soil respiration was proportional to its total carbon content. Maximum respiratory activity occurred in garden soil, followed in descending order by chernozem soil, brown soil, and sand. The oxidation of pipecolic acid, as studied by the Warburg manometric technique, in different rhizosphere soils from four crops 7, 13 and 20 days after planting as well as from one crop grown in different soils, was consistently in all cases faster than that by the corresponding non-rhizosphere soils. The curves of the rate of oxygen consumption during pipecolic acid oxidation, by garden soil (whether rhizosphere or non-rhizosphere soil) as well as by chernozem rhizosphere soil of different plants at the three stages of plant growth studied contained two peaks (two phases), whereas in non-rhizosphere chernozem soil as well as in brown soil and sand (whether affected or not affected by plant roots) only one peak was attained in the curves of the rate of oxygen uptake. The rapidity with which pipecolic acid was oxidized in the rhizosphere soil differed from plant to plant and at different phases of plant growth, and also with the type of soil used for plant growing. The extent of pipecolic acid oxidation after the first and second (if it occurred) phases did not differ in the different soils, both rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil, but the rate of oxygen uptake was higher in rhizosphere than in the corresponding non-rhizosphere soil. During the first phase, oxygen uptake accounted for slightly less than one-third of the total amount of oxygen required for complete oxidation of the added pipecolic acid. About two-thirds of that total amount were taken up during the both phases of oxidation.