Impacts of Climate Change on Microbial Activity in Agricultural …
99
Fig. 1 Greenhouse gases
(GHG) emission in Egypt by
sector. Source El Massah and
Omran [4]
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of Egypt, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 )
and nitrous oxide (N 2 O), are considered minor and representing only 0.53% of the
total world emissions in 2005. However these emissions have increased dramatically
by around 82% in only 15 years. The main source of GHG emissions in Egypt is
the energy sector and releasing about 75% of the total emissions in 2005 followed
by the agricultural sector, industrial process, and waste (Fig. 1). Accordingly, the
agricultural sector is the second largest emission sector in Egypt [4]. Therefore,
changing of climate change especially increased the emission of CO 2 could affect
soil biological activities.
Egyptian soils have a great diversity of microorganisms such as bacteria, actinobacteria, fungi and cyanobacteria as well as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi [5, 6].
These microorganisms play a crucial role in agricultural ecosystems through their
functions in nutrients cycling, soil-plant-microbe’s interactions and transformations
of soil organic matter. Additionally, numerous studies in Egypt indicated that the
Egyptian soils contain beneficial plant growth promoting microorganisms (bacteria
and fungi) that can be colonized plant roots and enhanced plant growth, yield, nutrients status in soil [7]. For instance, Hanna et al. [8] demonstrated that the considerable
diversity of culturable endophytic diazotrophs bacteria in the plant-soil systems of
north Sinai deserts. These results indicated that the possibility of these bacteria for
future application as biofertilizers and biopesticides. Under greenhouse pot experiment, Abd El-Azeem et al. [9] found that the inoculation of eggplant seedlings
with local plant growth promoting rhizobacterial strains lead to reduce the negative
effects of salt stress using sandy soil from Ismailia, Egypt. Indeed, without or scarce
of these microorganisms in agricultural soil ecosystems, the agriculture and food
production are not existing. Unfortunately, climate change and soil mismanagement
have the potential to affect the microbial activity in agricultural soils in different locations in Egypt. Climate change will have direct and indirect effects on soil microbial
communities and their biogeochemical processes that they underpin.
Previous studies have been investigated the effect of climate changes on soil
microbial activity. Some of the microbiological activities were assessed in these
studies such as microbial populations or communities [10, 11], soil microbial biomass
[12], soil microbial respiration [13, 14], the activity of soil enzymes [15, 16], soil
nutrients transformations [17–19].
99
Fig. 1 Greenhouse gases
(GHG) emission in Egypt by
sector. Source El Massah and
Omran [4]
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of Egypt, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 )
and nitrous oxide (N 2 O), are considered minor and representing only 0.53% of the
total world emissions in 2005. However these emissions have increased dramatically
by around 82% in only 15 years. The main source of GHG emissions in Egypt is
the energy sector and releasing about 75% of the total emissions in 2005 followed
by the agricultural sector, industrial process, and waste (Fig. 1). Accordingly, the
agricultural sector is the second largest emission sector in Egypt [4]. Therefore,
changing of climate change especially increased the emission of CO 2 could affect
soil biological activities.
Egyptian soils have a great diversity of microorganisms such as bacteria, actinobacteria, fungi and cyanobacteria as well as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi [5, 6].
These microorganisms play a crucial role in agricultural ecosystems through their
functions in nutrients cycling, soil-plant-microbe’s interactions and transformations
of soil organic matter. Additionally, numerous studies in Egypt indicated that the
Egyptian soils contain beneficial plant growth promoting microorganisms (bacteria
and fungi) that can be colonized plant roots and enhanced plant growth, yield, nutrients status in soil [7]. For instance, Hanna et al. [8] demonstrated that the considerable
diversity of culturable endophytic diazotrophs bacteria in the plant-soil systems of
north Sinai deserts. These results indicated that the possibility of these bacteria for
future application as biofertilizers and biopesticides. Under greenhouse pot experiment, Abd El-Azeem et al. [9] found that the inoculation of eggplant seedlings
with local plant growth promoting rhizobacterial strains lead to reduce the negative
effects of salt stress using sandy soil from Ismailia, Egypt. Indeed, without or scarce
of these microorganisms in agricultural soil ecosystems, the agriculture and food
production are not existing. Unfortunately, climate change and soil mismanagement
have the potential to affect the microbial activity in agricultural soils in different locations in Egypt. Climate change will have direct and indirect effects on soil microbial
communities and their biogeochemical processes that they underpin.
Previous studies have been investigated the effect of climate changes on soil
microbial activity. Some of the microbiological activities were assessed in these
studies such as microbial populations or communities [10, 11], soil microbial biomass
[12], soil microbial respiration [13, 14], the activity of soil enzymes [15, 16], soil
nutrients transformations [17–19].