Potential Use of Soil Enzymes as Soil Quality Indicators in Agriculture

The rapid changes in urease activity with regard to agricultural management practices and environmental factors signals its great potential for monitoring changes in soil quality. Soil enzymes catalyze several biochemical reactions that lead to the decomposition and recycling of nutrients from dead organic matter, nitrogen fixation, nitrification, denitrification, stabilization of soil structure and inhibition of the impact of contaminants. Thus, the analysis of soil enzyme activity can provide an early and dynamic indication of soil quality changes in agriculture. Improvement and maintenance of soil quality are key to enhancing agricultural yield and environmental quality. Soil enzymes are synthesized by plants, animals and microorganisms, and their location may be endocellular or intracellular. Soil enzyme activities may be used as soil quality indicators under different categories, namely, pollution indicators, ecosystems perturbation indicators and agricultural practice indicators. Glucosidases are highly diverse soil enzymes that are involved in catalyzing the hydrolysis of glycosides.