Author(s)

Subhajit Das^*, Dipnarayan Ganguly, Abhishek Mukherjee, Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Tarun Kumar De

Department of Marine Science, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India.

Vertical occurrence of soil urease activity along with ammonia content from three distinct regions viz. Deep forest region (No tidal action and wave attack occurs as it is furthest from river shore and it contains maximum content of organic carbon and minimum soil salinity and silicate concentration. In this zone plenty of pneumatophores, below ground root and dense vegetation are found), Rooted region (It is situated in between Deep forest region and Un-rooted region. This region contains only pneumatophores but it is devoid of long roots and vegetations. It faces wave attack and tidal action less than that of Un-rooted region) and Un-rooted region (It is closest to river shore and faces maximum wave attack and tidal action; it contains minimum organic carbon but maximum soil salinity and silicate concentration. This zone is totally devoid of any roots, pneumatophores and vegetations) of Sundarban mangrove forest ecosystem, India revealed an interesting explanation. Soil urease activity showed a decreasing pattern with increase in depth from the deep forest region of the Sundarban forest ecosystem. Soil urease activity was found to be more sensitive to soil temperature and pH rather than soil salinity. This ensured that soil urease along with the microbes present in the Sundarban forest ecosystem are more tolerant to fluctuation in salinity than that of temperature. Soil ammonia concentration was found to be directly governed by the soil urease activity [The regression equation is Ammonia in soil = -1.64 + 0.0402 Urease Activity (R-Sq = 62.9%, P < 0.001, n = 41)].

Soil Urease Activity, Soil Ammonia, Deep Forest Region, Rooted Region, Un-Rooted Region, and Sundarban Forest Ecosystem

Das, S. , Ganguly, D. , Mukherjee, A. , Chakraborty, S. and De, T. (2017) Soil Urease Activity of Sundarban Mangrove Ecosystem, India. Advances in Microbiology, 7, 617-632. doi: 10.4236/aim.2017.78048.