Summary
Two different soils were fractionated with three granulometric procedures. Enzyme activity measurements were carried out in four fractions of real (undisturbed), stable (water-dispersed) and structural (water-dispersed and physically disrupted) soil units.
A predominance of catalase (67.3%), dehydrogenase (57.6%) and urease (65.3%) activities was observed in soil structural microunits with diameters of less than 50 μm. Highest protease activity was found in fractions with a diameter of less than 50 μm (66.3%) and in fractions with a diameter ranging from 200 to 2000 μm (18.5%) which contain organic matter of a higher and lower grade of humification, respectively.
All fractionation procedures result in a loss of total enzyme activities, which was more clear in the physically disrupted soil than in the sieved soil (e.g. 38.4% vs. 5.9% loss of urease activity).
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Perez Mateos, M., Gonzalez Carcedo, S. Effect of fractionation on location of enzyme activities in soil structural units. Biol Fert Soils 1, 153–159 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00301783
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00301783