Soil Enzyme Activities Affecting by Different Tillage Systems and Cover Crops Following Corn Cultivation

Abstract

Cover crops and minimum tillage or zero- tillage practices are the soil conservation management practices. These practices improve or sustain soil properties especially soil organic matter. In the study, we investigated the effects of cover crops and tillage practices on soil urease, alkaline phosphatase and catalase activities at different soil depths following corn. The corn was planted in May, and the cover crops (common vetch, fodder beet, mix of common vetch and fodder beet) were planted in late summer under minimum and conventional tillage. Soil samples were collected at 0-10, 10-20 and 20-30 cm soil depths in 2018. With respect to results of the study, cover crops affected all the enzyme activities while tillage systems affected urease and catalase activities in soil. The highest urease (9.91 and 7.48 µg g N soil-1 h-1), alkaline phosphatase (99.29 and 84.61 µg g p-nitrophenol soil-1 h-1) and catalase (58.73 and 64.82 ml O2 3 min-1 g soil-1) activities were in common vetch plots in minimum and conventional tilled plots and all the enzyme activities were decreased with increasing soil depth. The results suggest that cover crops and minimum tillage practices increase soil enzyme activities.