Enzyme Activity as an Indicator of Soil Quality in Sterile Waste Heap

Abstract Recent research reports that enzymes accumulated in soil participate in the cycles of elements and contribute to soil fertility. The purpose of this paper is to determine the enzymatic activity and the humus content in the materials from waste heap in order to assess their fertility and to establish possible re-cultivation technologies. The investigations were carried out on materials from the Pesteana North waste heap. In order to achieve this, the activity of catalase, invertase, urease and phosphatase activity was determined in different plots of the heap during the summer and as a control the zonal soil was used. Enzymatic activities were colorimetric assay using appropriate substrates. The obtained results show a large variation in the values of the determined enzymatic activities. In all investigated plots, all enzymes are found to be lower than those determined for the zonal soil. A strong positive correlation is observed between enzymatic activities of catalase and invertase and the accumulation of humus which demonstrates that enzymatic activities has a useful tool for studying the evolution of heap materials to agricultural soils.