Effect of land use on soil enzyme activities at karst area in Nanchuan, Chongqing, Southwest China

The study of soil enzyme activities under different land use is of importance for exploration of the soil quality evolution and its evaluation during the revegetation at karst area in Nanchuan, Chongqing, China. Seven kinds of land use were chosen as subject, aiming at revealing the changes in soil enzyme activities through experimental and statistical analysis. The results showed that different land use significantly influenced the enzyme activities. Soil urease, invertase, catalase and amylase behaved the different change. A descending order of urease activity was artificial forest, natural forest, shrubbery, grassland, slope field into terrace, rock desertification and farmland. As to invertase and amylase, they have no clear change orderliness with land use change. Moreover, no significant change was observed in catalase activity and the lower value was found in natural forest. The above results cannot reflect the land use effect on the enzyme activities. According to the soil enzyme index (SEI), it can be seen that the SEI changed with an order of natural forest > artificial forest > grassland > shrubbery > farmland > slope field into terrace > rock desertification, which can objectively and fully evaluate the land use change in soil enzyme.