Regularities in the Development of Soil Biological Activity and Winter Wheat Productivity under Ecologised Fertiliser Systems

Abstract

Restoration and optimisation of soil processes is an important task of modern agriculture and one of the reserves for increasing agricultural production. Under the current conditions, this becomes possible with the integrated introduction of ecologised fertiliser systems. The purpose of the study is to investigate the regularities of the development of biological features of grey forest soil, the interdependencies between them, and the productivity of winter wheat in ecologised fertiliser systems. The following methods were used in the study: field, laboratory and analytical, biochemical, mathematical and statistical. Patterns of changes in situ of cellulolytic, proteolytic, and actual dehydrogenase activities of the soil, the carbon content of labile humus, and the number and weight of winter wheat grains per unit area were similar to each other. There was a decrease in cellulolytic activity, the smallest increase in the remaining biological characteristics of the soil under the use of pea straw, compared to the control. The greatest cellulolytic or proteolytic activity occurred in pea straw + N30P45K45 + biostimulator + humus fertiliser or pea straw + N30P45K45 + biostimulator + microbiological fertiliser, respectively, dehydrogenase – in 2, and the content of labile humus – in the first of these 2 variants. The availability of carbon and nitrogen allowed explaining the identified patterns in a relevant way. The positive Pearson correlation coefficients between plant productivity and soil biological activity, labile humus content, and enzymatic activity, and the insignificant partial correlation coefficients between these variables are partly conditioned by multicollinearity and multivariate interdependencies. In the future, the research would provide a deeper understanding of the patterns of development of biological properties of the soil under ecological fertiliser systems. This would help to improve the elements of greening to adjust the ratio of potential and actual fertility to the optimal level. Scientific results can become a basic basis for the development of effective soil-protecting organic and mineral fertiliser systems for economic and industrial structures of various levels of intensity and financial viability