Spatio-temporal variation in soil microbial biomass and enzymatic activity in different forest ecosystem of North-India

Background & Aim: The present study compared the soil microbial biomass, enzymatic activity and the nutrientaccessibility under different location covering dry deciduous and temperate forest of North-India. Also, the temporalvariation was evaluated for two consecutive years during the pre and post monsoon season. Results: The resultsindicated significant temporal and spatial variation among the soil characteristics and the availability of nutrients. Soilmicrobial biomass carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous ranged from 151.63 - 471.1, 36.56 - 88.68 and 15.73 - 62.18 μgg-1. Acid phosphatese activity was highest in forest stand 4 and lowest in forest stand 1, while the value of β-glucosidase activity was recorded maximum at forest stand 5 i.e. 1514.95 μg g-1 h-1 whereas the lower value was inforest stand 1 i.e. 582.23 μg g-1 h-1. Furthermore, the dehydrogenase(DHA) activity ranged from 38.61 - 497.78 μg g-1h-1 and 158.14 - 707.37 μg g-1 h-1 for the two seasons with lowest value at forest stand 1 and highest at forest stand 4.Similarly, the estimated protease and flurosceindiacetate (FDA) activity was high at forest stand 4. Comparisonamong different soil properties was markedly higher during the pre-monsoon season and it decreases along the foreststand located in dry deciduous region during the study period. Conclusion: The higher microbial biomass andenzymatic activities at forest stand resides in temperate region suggested the higher nutrient availability and soilfertility in temperate forest