Chemical and Microbiological Soil Characteristics under Conventional and Organic Coffee Production Systems

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of Conilon coffee (Coffea canephora) cultivated under conventional and organic management systems on the chemical and microbiological characteristics of the soil, as compared to an Atlantic forest. Chemical soil properties, microbial biomass carbon (MBC), microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN), microbial activity (MA), and metabolic quotient (qCO2) were determined at depths of 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm in two seasons (summer and winter). Although microbiological attributes varied according to the season and soil depth, MBC provided 54.15% of relative contribution to distinguish the treatments, followed by MBN and MA. Results indicate that the cultivation of coffee under organic management is more sustainable than under conventional system. Carbon from microbial biomass was the most important soil microbiological attribute in the clustering of the different management methods. Atlantic forest soil followed by organic coffee cultivation soil showed the best soil-quality indices.

Keywords:

• Cover crops
• microbiology
• plant nutrition
• soil fertility

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), the Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro (UENF), the Instituto Capixaba de Pesquisa e Assistência Técnica (INCAPER), and the Embrapa Agrobiologia for the financial and technical support and Gerson Cosme for the experimental area.