Abstract
Intact soil cores from a perennial pasture were incubated under controlled environment conditions to examine the effect of simulated cultivation on microbial biomass C and N and associated nitrogenous products. Microbial biomass C increased by an average of 34% to 3184 μg C g −1 soil during the first 17 days after addition of a glucose-sodium acetate-( 15NH 4) 2SO 4 solution, but was not affected by cultivation. Microbial biomass N (average 343 μg N g −1 soil) was not affected by either amendment or cultivation treatments. Cultivation promoted the oxidation of recently-synthesized microbial metabolites and enhanced substrate depletion, with an additional 16 μg NO − 3-N g −1 soil (equivalent to 0.5% of total organic N) being produced in the 105 days following disturbance. A 36% reduction in potentially mineralizable N in the disturbed vs undisturbed treatments suggests the rapid depletion of the labile organic component on cultivation may retard the subsequent decomposition of more resistant organic material.
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