mentioned frequent and intermittent drying of soils, that will originate matric and
osmotic stresses with related impact on enzyme composition and activity.
The results show that climate change not only significantly affects soil enzyme
activity, but also affects the mineralization of soil nutrients. These findings suggest
that global change may alter grassland ecosystem C, N and P cycling by influencing
soil enzyme activity.
Despite the current knowledge on enzymes activity, there is still considerable
gaps requiring more information to understand the ecology and function of extracellular enzymes in soils because of the diversity and complexity of the soil
physical and chemical environment and microbial communities. In fact, microbial
and enzymatic responses to the effects of climate change are complex because they
not only depend on several climatic factors and the relations among them, but are
also cumulatively affected by enzymes activity and microbial turnover which in turn
are dependent on the formerly mentioned climatic factors. Due to this complexity
and missing information, the use of enzyme-based technology requires careful
consideration for interpretation and application. This is particularly true when
enzymes are used to evaluate soil quality because soil enzyme activities should be
used in correlation with other key soil measurements. Since enzymes can be
independent of soil type, further research on calibrating and interpreting soil
enzyme technologies is needed.
10 Conclusion
The amounts of N applied to the soil from different sources are only a part of the
chain of N losses considered by the N Footprinting methodology, but they do tend
to be one of the larger ones and increasing NUE in soils is a major challenge to
reduce these losses. Increasing the understanding of the role of enzymes and how
they are affected by the factors listed above will help improve N Footprints. But
there is a lot of uncertainty and responses will be site and crop specific. Climate
change results in global warming, uncertain and erratic precipitation patterns and
atmosphere composition alteration and, because the activity of enzymes in their
natural environments is affected by abiotic factors and biotic processes (e.g. enzyme
production and turnover) they are likely to be affected by climate change driven
phenomena. These, in turn, have important consequences for ecosystem functions
including those happening in the soils, such as the maintenance SOM and added
organic material decomposition, nutrient cycling and plant—microbe interactions.
These effects will ultimately have an impact on crop productivity, net C balance in
soils, N use efficiency and N-footprint.
Nitrogen Footprints and the Role …
149
osmotic stresses with related impact on enzyme composition and activity.
The results show that climate change not only significantly affects soil enzyme
activity, but also affects the mineralization of soil nutrients. These findings suggest
that global change may alter grassland ecosystem C, N and P cycling by influencing
soil enzyme activity.
Despite the current knowledge on enzymes activity, there is still considerable
gaps requiring more information to understand the ecology and function of extracellular enzymes in soils because of the diversity and complexity of the soil
physical and chemical environment and microbial communities. In fact, microbial
and enzymatic responses to the effects of climate change are complex because they
not only depend on several climatic factors and the relations among them, but are
also cumulatively affected by enzymes activity and microbial turnover which in turn
are dependent on the formerly mentioned climatic factors. Due to this complexity
and missing information, the use of enzyme-based technology requires careful
consideration for interpretation and application. This is particularly true when
enzymes are used to evaluate soil quality because soil enzyme activities should be
used in correlation with other key soil measurements. Since enzymes can be
independent of soil type, further research on calibrating and interpreting soil
enzyme technologies is needed.
10 Conclusion
The amounts of N applied to the soil from different sources are only a part of the
chain of N losses considered by the N Footprinting methodology, but they do tend
to be one of the larger ones and increasing NUE in soils is a major challenge to
reduce these losses. Increasing the understanding of the role of enzymes and how
they are affected by the factors listed above will help improve N Footprints. But
there is a lot of uncertainty and responses will be site and crop specific. Climate
change results in global warming, uncertain and erratic precipitation patterns and
atmosphere composition alteration and, because the activity of enzymes in their
natural environments is affected by abiotic factors and biotic processes (e.g. enzyme
production and turnover) they are likely to be affected by climate change driven
phenomena. These, in turn, have important consequences for ecosystem functions
including those happening in the soils, such as the maintenance SOM and added
organic material decomposition, nutrient cycling and plant—microbe interactions.
These effects will ultimately have an impact on crop productivity, net C balance in
soils, N use efficiency and N-footprint.
Nitrogen Footprints and the Role …
149