Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Journal of Young Scientist", Vol. 8
Written by Ana-Maria PREDA, Maria DUMITRACHE, Elena ZLOTEA
Soil quality is the competence of soil to perform necessary functions that are able to maintain animal and plant productivity of the soil. Soil consists of various physical, chemical, and biological parameters, and all these parameters are involved in the critical functioning of soil. There is a need for continuous assessment of soil quality as soil is a complex and dynamic constituent of Earth's biosphere that is continuously changing by natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Any perturbations in the soil cause disturbances in the physical (soil texture, bulk density, etc.), chemical (pH, salinity, organic carbon, etc.), and biological (microbes and enzymes) parameters. These physical, chemical, and biological parameters can serve as indicators for soil quality assessment. However, soil quality assessment cannot be possible by evaluating only one parameter out of physical, chemical, or biological. So, there is an emergent need to establish a minimum dataset (MDS) which shall include physical, chemical, and biological parameters to assess the quality of the given soil. Diagnosis of soil pollution risk and carrying out measures to recover contaminated soil requires a thorough study of the degree of determination of soil function. Enzymatic activity reveals disturbances of the ecosystem, enzymes can indicate, along with other physico-chemical properties, soil quality. In this mini-review paper, we analyze the effects of modern, industrial agriculture, the effects of soil pollutants (pesticides, nitrate) and the effects of cultivation techniques. Further research is needed to establish the quantitative relationships between the physico-chemical properties of the soil and the enzymatic activity.
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