Differentiation of Soil Biological Activity in Intensive Apple Orchards of Central Russia

The objects of research were soils in intensive apple orchards of the Lipetsk and Tambov regions. The biological activity of row spacing and trunk strips was compared. At the age of 16 in apple orchards, the cellulolytic activity of the soil in the 10-100 cm row spacing layer is lower than in the trunk strips: on leached chernozem - by 6.8 times, on meadow-chernozem soil - by 6.8 times, on chernozem-meadow soil - by 5.8 times, on gray forest soil - by 8.5 times. In the meadow-chernozem soil of the inter-row zone of apple orchards, compared with the trunk strips, there were fewer bacteria in the 0-40 cm layer by 1.7-2.3 times, yeast in the 0-10 cm layer by 2.2 times, mold fungi in the 0-10 cm layer by 2.3 times, and mold fungi in the 10-40 cm layer by 7.3 times. On the gray forest soil in the row-by-row zone of apple orchards, compared with the trunk strips, there were fewer bacteria in the 0-10 cm layer by 2.6 times, bacteria in the 10-40 cm layer by 3.7 times, yeast in the 0-40 cm layer by 1.2-1.5 times, mold fungi in the 0-40 cm layer by 1.4-2.4 times. Leached chernozem in the row-to-row zone of apple orchards contained fewer bacteria in a 10-40 cm layer by 1.4 times, yeast by 7.5-10.8 times, mold fungi in a 0-10 cm layer by 6 times, and in a 10-40 cm layer by 112 times. A close correlation has been established between the humus content in the humus horizon of soils and the intensity of fiber degradation (r = 0.99).