EFECTO DE LA CERO LABRANZA SOBRE ALGUNAS ACTIVIDADES BIOLÓGICAS EN UN ALFISOL DEL SUR DE CHILE

Due to the necessity to stabilize and protect the soil from degradation processes, the agronomic practices such non-tillage (NT) were applied. Microbial biomass (MB) and some enzyme activities were evaluated here because they are very sensitive to the changes taken place in the environment. The aim of this study was to measure some biological activities in an Alfisol of the Southern Chile under NT cropping. The biological activities evaluated were: carbon (BMC) and nitrogen (BMN) of microbial biomass, respectively), N- mineralization, dehydrogenase and catalase activities and some hydrolytic enzyme activities representative of different cycles of biological importance in soil (C, N, P, S). Soil organic C total N and S content also were evaluated. Soil samples were collected after harvest at three different depths (0-5, 5-10 and 10-20 cm), in soils cropped 4, 7 and 20 years under NT. The results showed an increment in organic C, N, S, N-mineralization and in the biological activities in the top soil 5 cm depth, with an increment of year under NT. In general, there was close relationships were found among almost all biological activities evaluated (r > 0.8; p< 0.05).