Impacts of Climate Change on Microbial
Activity in Agricultural Egyptian Soils
Samy Abd El-Malik Mohamed Abd El-Azeem
Abstract Egypt’s agriculture sector is highly vulnerable to climate change and its
exposed to environmental threats in different faces such as energy, water and food
security. Specifically, climate change is possible to change plant species composition, abundance and function of soil community, and plant-microbe interactions that
together affect the quality of agricultural soils. For microorganisms inhabiting Egyptian soils, some insight has been exposed to high temperature and accumulating of
carbonates and soluble salts in Aridisols (desert soils), and the other inhabiting in
alluvial soils (Entisols) in the Nile Delta and the Qattara Depression of the western desert. Egyptian soils have a great diversity of microorganisms such as bacteria,
actinobacteria, fungi and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi that play an important role in
nutrient cyclings. Unfortunately, the soil is a complex habitat for microbial growth,
and the structure and function of microorganisms are tremendously complex in the
soil. These complexations lead the difficult to predict the effects of climate change
on the activity of Egyptian soil microorganisms. Climate change will have direct
and indirect effects on soil microbial activity. Climate changes include increasing
temperature, elevated or increasing the concentration of CO 2 , rise changing soil moisture content, increasing of soil salinity, and drought. These changes led to reversely
impacted soil microbial communities that affect biogeochemical cycles of nutrients
in agricultural soils. Therefore, understanding of microbial activity in the soil is
essential for our ability to evaluate the necessity of biogeochemical cycles-climate
feedbacks. Soil microbial activities play an important role in increasing soil fertility and recycling of nutrients within the soil. Activity in soil microorganism and/or
enzyme is significant as a sensitive indicator of soil biological quality. These activities
are informative to determine changes in soil biochemical properties that are affected
by environmental stress from natural phenomena or anthropogenic activities. In this
chapter, we review the currently available researches regarding the impact of climate
change on soil microbial activity, especially in Egyptian soils. Soil microbial activity
includes microbial populations, microbial biomass, enzymes activity, soil beneficial
microorganisms and carbon sequestration in Egyptian soil.
S. A. El.-M. M. Abd El-Azeem (B)
Soil and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Suez Canal University, Ismailia 41522, Egypt
e-mail: samy_abdelmalik@agr.suez.edu.eg; sazeem18@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
E.-S. E. Omran and A. M. Negm (eds.), Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture and Food
Security in Egypt, Springer Water, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41629-4_6
97
Activity in Agricultural Egyptian Soils
Samy Abd El-Malik Mohamed Abd El-Azeem
Abstract Egypt’s agriculture sector is highly vulnerable to climate change and its
exposed to environmental threats in different faces such as energy, water and food
security. Specifically, climate change is possible to change plant species composition, abundance and function of soil community, and plant-microbe interactions that
together affect the quality of agricultural soils. For microorganisms inhabiting Egyptian soils, some insight has been exposed to high temperature and accumulating of
carbonates and soluble salts in Aridisols (desert soils), and the other inhabiting in
alluvial soils (Entisols) in the Nile Delta and the Qattara Depression of the western desert. Egyptian soils have a great diversity of microorganisms such as bacteria,
actinobacteria, fungi and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi that play an important role in
nutrient cyclings. Unfortunately, the soil is a complex habitat for microbial growth,
and the structure and function of microorganisms are tremendously complex in the
soil. These complexations lead the difficult to predict the effects of climate change
on the activity of Egyptian soil microorganisms. Climate change will have direct
and indirect effects on soil microbial activity. Climate changes include increasing
temperature, elevated or increasing the concentration of CO 2 , rise changing soil moisture content, increasing of soil salinity, and drought. These changes led to reversely
impacted soil microbial communities that affect biogeochemical cycles of nutrients
in agricultural soils. Therefore, understanding of microbial activity in the soil is
essential for our ability to evaluate the necessity of biogeochemical cycles-climate
feedbacks. Soil microbial activities play an important role in increasing soil fertility and recycling of nutrients within the soil. Activity in soil microorganism and/or
enzyme is significant as a sensitive indicator of soil biological quality. These activities
are informative to determine changes in soil biochemical properties that are affected
by environmental stress from natural phenomena or anthropogenic activities. In this
chapter, we review the currently available researches regarding the impact of climate
change on soil microbial activity, especially in Egyptian soils. Soil microbial activity
includes microbial populations, microbial biomass, enzymes activity, soil beneficial
microorganisms and carbon sequestration in Egyptian soil.
S. A. El.-M. M. Abd El-Azeem (B)
Soil and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Suez Canal University, Ismailia 41522, Egypt
e-mail: samy_abdelmalik@agr.suez.edu.eg; sazeem18@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
E.-S. E. Omran and A. M. Negm (eds.), Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture and Food
Security in Egypt, Springer Water, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41629-4_6
97