Effect of biochar and vermicompost applications on some biological properties of soil

In this study, the effect of biochar (BC) and vermicompost VC applications on enzyme activities in soil was investigated. For this purpose, different mixing ratios of BC and VC (control (O1), 100% BC (O2), 100% VC (O3), 75% BC+25% VC (O4), 25% BC+75% VC (O5), 50% BC+50% VC (O6)) were applied into the soil taken from an orchard in Ordu Province. All applications were incubated at 3 different periods for 20, 40 and 60 days. At the end of each incubation period, the effect of BC and VC applications on biological properties of soil such as; microbial biomass, CO2 formation, dehydrogenase enzyme activity, urease enzyme activity and aryl sulfatase enzyme activities were determined. According to the results, the effect of incubation time and applications on soil organic matter, urease and aryl sulphatase enzyme activities were statistically significant and all applications were effective on CO2 formation and microbial biomass-C and dehydrogenase enzyme activity. Generally, O2 and O3 applications were the predominant on biological properties of soil. It was determined that soil urease enzyme activity increased in O2 and O3 applications at the 60 days incubation period; the soil organic matter increased in O2 application at the 40 days incubation period and aryl sulfatase enzyme activity increased in O6 application at the 60 days incubation period. Due to high C and C/N ratio of biochar, it was determined that biochar application itself has no sufficient effect and it is suitable to use with organic materials such as vermicompost having a narrow C/N ratio. When all the data were evaluated, the boichar application (O2) as a soil conditioner had positive effect on soil biological properties