Changes of Soil Microbial Communities as Affected by Long-Term Cultivation of Red Pepper.

Compost as a soil amendment is of importance in enhancing the soil chemical and microbial qualities; however, soil microbial community can vary depending on the composition and the amount of compost applied to plant in the soil. Responses of soil microbial properties to compost applications with 0, 30, and 60 Mg ha-1 were investigated in silt loamsoils where red pepper(CapsicumannuumL.) was mainly cultivated in Yeongyang, Gyeongbuk, Korea. The analysis of phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) extracted fromsoil showed that compost amounts significantly increased PLFAs representing as bacteria, fungi, and VAM-fungi as well as the ratio of fungi/bacteria and monounsaturated/saturated PLFAs. Increasing the amount of compost significantly increased Gram-/Gram+ PLFAs’ ratio, but significantly decreased monounsaturated/saturated PLFAs’ ratio. Therefore, this result shows that compost would vary to a limited extent the microbial community in red pepper field. However, increase in compost application would change the subgroup structure of microbial community only.