1. INFLUENCE OF LONG TERM ORGANIC
FERTILIZATION ON THE SOIL MICROBIAL
COMMUNITY FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURE AND
ENZYME ACTIVITIES IN PADDY SOIL
WORKSHOP ON ASIAN NETWORK FOR SUSTAINABLE ORGANIC FARMING TECHNOLOGY
July 1-4, 2012
FERNANDO LOPEZ HALL, BUREAU OF SOILS AND WATER MANAGEMENT
DILIMAN, QUEZON CITY PHILIPPINES
Venecio U. Ultra, Jr. Ph.D.
College of Natural Sciences
Catholic University of Daegu
Gyeongsan City, Republic of Korea
Evelyn F. Javier, MSc.
Philippine Rice Research
Institute, Munoz City, Nueva
Ecija, Philippines

2. LONG TERM ORGANIC ERTILIZER
USE IN A PADDY SOIL
2003-present
Philippine Rice Research Institute
Maligaya, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija

3. Project Goal:
 To establish scientific information and data as
basis for the development of technology of an
organic-based rice production system
 Sustainability of rice grain yield
 Sustainability of soil productivity e.g. physical,
chemical and biological aspect
 Dynamic of Insect pest profile
 Differences in Grain quality and seed vigor
 Environmental effects e.g. GHG emission

4. CHEMICAL
PHYSICAL
BIOLOGICAL
SOIL
HEALTH
SOIL PRODUCTIVITY;
FUNCTIONALITY

5. Objective:
•Determine the status of soil
microbial community structure and
enzyme activities as a reflections of
the impacts of organic fertilization on
the biological properties and
processes in rice paddy soil.

6. Original/Existing treatments:
•Solo fertilizers treatment
1.Control
2.Full NPK rate/ha
3.Half NPK rate/ha
4.Rice straw
5.Rice straw with EMBI
6.Commercial organic fertilizer
7.Chicken manure
8.Green manure (T. diversifolia)

7. Original/Existing treatments:
•Solo fertilizers treatment
•Combined fertilizer treatment
1.RS with full NPK
2.RS with half NPK
3.RSEM with full NPK
4.RSEM with half NPK
5.COF with full NPK
6.COF with half NPK
7.WSF with full NPK
8.WSF with half NPK

8. Treatments for this particular study:
1.Control or unfertilized plots
2.Inorganic NPK fertilizers
3.Commercial organic fertilizer
4.Chicken manure
5.Rice straw
Experimental Lay-out and design:
RCBD with 4 replications

9. Data gathered:
•Soil Enzyme Activities
–Acid phosphatase
–Alkaline phosphatase
–Dehydrogenase
–Arylsulfatase
–Urease
•Microbial Activity
–FDA (flourescein diacetate
hydrolyses)
–p-D glucosadase activity
–AWCD of Biolog EcoPlate

10. Data gathered:
•Soil Microbial Functional Diversity
–Shanon-Weaver index (richness and evenness of
response)
–Carbon Utilization Richness (number of positive wells on
the ecoplate)
•Soil microbial functional structure
–Principal Component Analyses (substrate utilization
physiologic profile)

11. Biolog EcoPlate inoculated with Paddy Soil to
assess the Soil Microbial Physiologic Profile
(Carbon Utilization Potential)

12. RESULTS

13. Treatments
Acid
Phosphatase
Alkaline
Phosphatase
Dehydrogenase Arylsulfatase Urease
(μg urea
hydrolyzed/
g soil / h)μg PNP/g soil /hr
Control 356±5 d 431±10 d 125±2 e 32±1 e 37±1 d
IF 435±13 c 531±16 c 193±5 d 49±1 d 53±1 b
COF 726±23 a 767±46 ab 285±10 a 74±2 a 62±2 a
CM 758±7 a 880±8 a 260±2 b 68±1 b 57±1 b
RS 597±5 b 728±7 b 210±2 c 54±1 c 45±1 c
P 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
Soil enzyme activities as affected by
long-term inorganic and organic fertilization

14. FDA hydrolyses p-D-Glucosadase activity
Soil Microbial Activities

15. Soil Microbial Activities
BIOLOG ECOPLATE –Average Well Color Development

16. Microbial Functional
Diversity

17. Soil microbial functional structure

18. Soil Biological
Parameters
Soil and Yield Parameters Grain Yield
(tons/ha)Avail P
(ppm)
Exch K,
(cmol/kg soils)
SOM (%) Soil pH Avial N
2009 DS 2009 WS
Acid phosphatase 0.563* 0.033 ns 0.304 ns 0.319 ns 0.691** 0.066 ns -0.074 ns
Alkaline
phosphatase
0.523* 0.058 ns 0.288 ns 0.276 ns 0.669** 0.046 ns -0.066 ns
Dehydrogenase 0.644* 0.046 ns 0.298 ns 0.296 ns 0.681** 0.059 ns -0.067 ns
Arylsulphatase 0.564* 0.040 ns 0.312 ns 0.320 ns 0.697** 0.073 ns -0.068 ns
Urease 0.548* 0.034 ns 0.300 ns 0.298 ns 0.685** 0.062 ns -0.071 ns
FDA 0.555* 0.037 ns 0.304 ns 0.310 ns 0.687** 0.063 ns -0.076 ns
p-D-Glucosidase 0.556* 0.034 ns 0.298 ns 0.312 ns 0.684** 0.061 ns -0.077 ns
Shanon-Weaver
Index
0.565* 0.264 ns 0.545* 0.216 ns 0.540** 0.582** 0.521**
RICHNESS 0.555* 0.213 ns 0.366 ns 0.193 ns 0.586** 0.313 ns 0.334 ns
PC1 0.873*** -0.124 ns 0.623** 0.580* 0.665** 0.743** 0.405 ns
PC2 0.351 ns 0.107 ns 0.248 ns 0.171 ns -0.667** 0.029 ns 0.062 ns
Correlations soil and yield data Soil Biological Properties

19. Summary
•Soil enzymatic activities in soils were generally
higher in paddy soils applied with organic
fertilizer particularly with COF and CM
–Phosphatase(acid and alkaline) increased
with long term use of OF and resulted to
enhanced P availability as indicated by
the increased available P in the paddy
soils.
•Organic fertilizer enhanced microbial activity in
soils as shown by the increased FDA, pD-
glucosidase, AWCD

20. Summary
•Soil microbial functional structure (using
the Biolog Ecoplate substrate utilization
physiologic profile) differs or showed
distinct community structure among the
fertilizer used in soils

21. Conclusion:
•Type of fertilizer applied in the paddy
soils greatly affected microbial properties
which are considered to be sensitive
indicators of ecosystem responses and
soil health.

22. THANK YOU!!!