The role of enzyme activities in soil ecosystem services: Location, origin and connection to the phytobiome

Soil enzymes are important components of soil quality and its health because of their involvement in ecosystem services related to biogeochemical cycling, global C and organic matter dynamics, and soil detoxification. This talk will provide an overview of the field of soil enzymology, the location and origin of soil enzymes, and the development and utilization of soil enzyme assays. Research in our laboratory has provided indexes of the soil metabolic capacity related to biogeochemical cycling and organic matter dynamics through different statistical analyses, a geometric mean, and more than a decade of research evaluating 11 enzymes involved in C (b-glucosidase, a-galactosidase), C&N (b-glucosaminidase), N (L-glutaminase, L-asparaginase, aspartase, urease), P (alkaline phosphatase, acid phosphatase, and phosphodiesterase), and S (arylsulfatase) cycling for different soils, management and climate regions. Soil enzyme activity trends due to the complex interactions of agroecosystem management and record droughts and heat waves due to climate change will be presented.