Soil Enzymatic Activities Under Various Customized Poultry Litter Application.

Poultry litter (PL) has been commonly used as a fertilizer and soil amendment for crop production in the United States for decades due to its nutritional value and high phosphorous content. Application of poultry litter not only improves the physical and chemical conditions but also enhance the biological properties such as microbial and enzyme activities of soil. However, poultry litter being a good source of phosphorus and organic matter, there are soil health concerns regarding the application of poultry litter in agricultural land in unmodified form. Although phosphatase activity is extensively studied in the soil, very limited information is available on the impact of customized poultry litter on soil enzymatic activities. The objective of our study was to determine the activities of acidic phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, and phosphodiesterase under various customized poultry litter treatments. The study was carried out in a randomized complete block design with four replications and five treatments: 1) Surface-tilled PL 2) Subsurface PL 3) Subsurface Perdue PL pellets 4) Subsurface PL compost, and 5) Surface-tilled composted PL. Our preliminary finding showed an increased acidic phosphatase activity as compared to alkaline phosphatase and phosphodiesterase, which might be related to low soil pH. Also, our initial result suggested, increased enzymatic activities in subsurface PL compost treatment. The increased enzymatic activities might be related to soil organic carbon and phosphorous content in subsurface PL compost. Our research is ongoing currently and it is expected that subsurface PL compost will have higher organic carbon and phosphorous content thus, contributing to increase in enzymatic activities of the soil.