Determination of Organic Fractions and Enzymatic Activity in Forest Spruce Soil of Tatra National Park

The formation and quality of soil organic matter (SOM) highly depends on the input of organic material and microbial enzymatic activities. Soil extractions with specific nonpolar and polar extractives can be used to identify qualitative changes in SOM. The aim of this paper was to understand the correlations among microbial enzymatic activity and specific organic fractions in acidic spruce forest soil. Klason lignin (KL), acid soluble lignin (ASL), holocellulose (HC), SOM content, and potential enzymatic activity (FDA and phosphatase) was measured and analyzed. We sampled Dystric Cambisol of forest spruce stands (Picea abies) in Tatra National Park (Slovakia). The SOM fractions were determined gravimetrically based on their extractivity in nonpolar (dichloromethane (DME)) and polar (acetone (AE), ethanol (EE), water (WE)) solvents Total extractives content was 0.079% and nonpolar extractives 0.036%. The mean amount of polar extractives tented to increase in the order EE<AE<WE. The total lignin content was determined to be 1.079% and HC 0.774%. FDA negatively correlated with KL (r=-0.873 p<0.05) and DME (r=-0.913 p<0.05). Phosphatase positively correlated with WE (r=0.972 p<0.01) and KL (r=0.957 p<0.01).