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Soil Science and Plant Nutrition

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Estimation of microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen in

Bangladesh soils
a a b a
Jamil Haider , Takuya Marumoto & Abul Kalam Azad
a
Institute of Postgraduate Studies in Agriculture , Salna, Gazipur , Bangladesh
b
Faculty of Agriculture , Yamaguchi University , Yamaguchi , 753 , Japan
Published online: 04 Jan 2012.

To cite this article: Jamil Haider , Takuya Marumoto & Abul Kalam Azad (1991) Estimation of microbial biomass carbon and
nitrogen in Bangladesh soils, Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 37:4, 591-599, DOI: 10.1080/00380768.1991.10416927

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 Soil Sci. Plant Nutr., 37 (4), 591-599, 1991 591

Estimation of Microbial Biomass Carbon and Nitrogen

in Bangladesh Soils

Jamil Haider, T a k u y a M a r u m o t o * , and A b u l K a l a m A z a d

Institute of Postgraduate Studies in Agriculture, Salna, Gazipur, Bangladesh; and

* Faculty of Agriculture, Yamaguchi University, Yarnaguch~ 753 Japan

Received April 20, 1990

In order to estimate the microbial biomass content and to quantify the amount
of available plant nutrients derived from microbial biomass in Bangladesh
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soils, biomass-C, -N, and available-N contents using samples from 8 soils
were measured by applying the chloroform fumigation and drying-rewetting
methods, respectively. 1) Contents of organic carbon and total nitrogen were
0.36-1.06 (av. 0.74) and 0.04-0.11 (av. 0.07)~o in samples from eight soils collected
in the central and north-eastern region of Bangladesh. 2) The c o n t r i b u t i o n of
biomass-C to soil organic carbon was about 2~o, ranging from 1.35 to 3.32. The
contribution was higher in grassland soil than in cropped arable soil with
similar organic C contents. 3) The contribution of biomass-N to total soil
n i t r o g e n r a n g e d f r o m 1.15 to 2.95 (av. 2.11). 4) The a v e r a g e r a t i o of flush-C to
flush-N f o r a 10 day period of incubation was 7.02. 5) The c o n t e n t s of organic
C, microbial biomass and available plant nutrients in the Bangladesh soils were
significantly lower t h a n those in t h e t e m p e r a t e region soils w h e r e intensive
agriculture is practiced.
K e y Words: biomass-C, biomass-N, flush-C, flush-N, fumigation.

Populations of heterotrophic soil microorganisms play a major role in the decomposi-

tion of organic materials applied to the soil at different time intervals. These decomposed
materials are used as carbon source by the microbes for the multiplication of their cell
number or the increase of their population. Moreover, soil microbial biomass acts also as a
sizeable reservoir for plant nutrients in soil. A part of the microbiaI population used to die
regularly due to the changes of the environmental conditions (Marumoto et al. 1982a). These
dead cells can be easily decomposed and mineralized by the microorganisms that survived
(Jenkinson 1976; Anderson and Domsch 1978; Nelson et al. 1979), and they contribute a
considerable amount of nutrients for the growing plants (Anderson and Domsch 1980;
Marumoto et al. 1982b).
Crop productivity of soil depends mainly on its fertility status, i.e., the amount of
available nutrients in soil. These available plant nutrients which reflect the soil fertility are
mostly derived from the soil microbial biomass. In general, the fertility status of the
Bangladesh soils is assumed to below, because the soils are not regularly amended with
enough organic matter to increase their carbon and nitrogen contents (Alamgir 1975). The
contents of organic carbon and total nitrogen in the Bangladesh soils are generally as
follows: C: 0.4-0.7% and N: 0.04-0.07% except for some typical soils such as acid basin clay,
dark grey floodplain and peat soils (C: 1.1-2.4%, N: 0.12-0.21%) ( U N D P / F A O Soil Survey
 592 J. HAIDER, T. MARUMOTO, and A.K. AZAD

Project 1971). These C and N contents are relatively lower than those of soils for agricul-
tural use in the temperate region (Brady 1974; Anderson and Domsch 1980). Moreover, the
turnover rate of soil organic matter in tropical soils is higher compared to temperate soils,
due to the favorable soil temperature and other environmental factors. However, informa-
tion about soil microbial biomass is limited and few studies on the fertility status of the
Bangladesh soils have been carried out.
The first objective of our studies was to estimate the microbial biomass content of
different Bangladesh soils by using the chloroform-fumigation method (Jenkinson 1976;
Jenkinson and Powlson 1976a, b; Jenkinson et al. 1976; Powlson and Jenkinson 1976).
According to this method the size of the flush of CO2 mineralization caused by CHC13
fumigation can be used for estimating the amount of microbial biomass in soils (Jenkinson
and Powlson 1976; Anderson and Domsch 1978; Marumoto 1984).
The second objective was to quantify the amount of available plant nutrients derived
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from microbial biomass in these soils.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Soils. Samples from eight soils were collected from the central and north-eastern
region of Bangladesh in July-August, 1989 from paddy (upland conditions) and upland
fields after harvesting of the crop. Table 1 indicates the location, series, crop productivity,
and fertilizer management of these soils. They were sampled to a depth of 10cm after
removing the top 2-3 cm soil. Samples were brought to the laboratory and spread for partial
air-drying after removal of the roots, insects, worms, and some small pieces of organic
matter. This procedure was necessary to reduce the water content of the soils and to pass
them through a 2 mm sieve. After sieving, the moisture content of the soils was adjusted to
about 50% of max. water holding capacity (WHC) and incubated aerobically at 25*C in
loosely closed polyethylene bags for 10 days before further treatments. Disruption of soil
aggregates can kill some soil organisms as well as expose some previously inaccessible
substrates to microbial attack (Powlson 1980). The purpose of this preincubation was to
allow the effect of drying and sieving on soil respiration to subside (Rovira and Greacen
1957; Craswell and Waring 1972). Some characteristics of these soils are shown in Table 2.
M e a s u r e m e n t of soil initial p a r a m e t e r s . Soil initial parameters described in Table
2 were determined by the following methods: a) Soil pH was measured with a glass electrode
using a 1 : 2 soil : water ratio; b) total nitrogen (T-N) content in soil was determined by the
Kjeldahl method using CuSO4 and Se as catalysts (Bremner 1965a); c) organic carbon
(organic C) content was determined by Tyurin's (Tyurin 1980) method; and d) cation
exchange capacity (CEC) of the samples was measured by Schollenberger's (Schollenberger
1980) method.
All the soils were classified according to US classification.
Soil t r e a t m e n t s . Control samples: Preincubated moist soil samples (50% of max.
WHC) equivalent to 20 g dry weight were incubated in 500 ml bottles with gas exchange
plugs for CO2-C determination at 25+0.52~ for 10 days.
Fumigated samples: The preincubated soil samples (the same amount as controls) were
fumigated with alcohol-free CHCI~ for 24 h in the dark in a desicattor (Jenkinson and
Powlson 1976a, b) and then reinoculated with 1% (w/w) of the respective original prein-
cubated moist soils and incubated for 10 days by the same procedure as that described for
the controls. Duplicate soil samples were used for each treatment.
 Biomass-C and -N in Bangladesh Soils 593

Table 1. Description of soils collected from different parts of Bangladesh, July-Aug., 1989.
Location Soil series Crop Fertilizer
Soil and in Bangladesh productivity management
description (t/ha) (kg/ha)
1 BARI substation, Palima, Tangail, Sonatola Rice (B.Aus.BR2) N: 60
river basin soil, paddy soil but 2.8 P: 60
crops like jute also grown K: 40
Jute (F. Tosha) N: 45
Fiber 2.6 P: 12
Stick 5.7 K: 30
2 BARI substation, Palima, Tangail, Sonatola -- --
river basin soil, grassland soil
3 Bhuapur, Tangail, farmer's field, N.A. 8 Rice (B.Aus, Hashi N: 110
river basin soil, paddy soil Kalmi) P : 27
1.5-2.0 K: 18
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4 Mirzapur, Tangail, farmer's field, N.A. Rice (Boro) N:200

paddy soil 5.6 P: 136
K: 67
5 Shibpur, Narsindi, farmer's field, Dulalpur Rice (IRRI) N:70
paddy soil 5.5 P : 70
Oil cake: 150
Cowdung: 8.3 t
6 IPSA farm, Salna, Gazipur, upland Salna Rice N: 46,
soil 0.5 P : 46,
K: 22.5
7 IPSA farm, Salna, Gazipur, upland Salna Wheat N: 120
soil 2 P : 100
K: 60
S: 20
Compost: 25 t
8 BRRI substation, Comilla, paddy N.A. Rice (Boro) N.A.
soil 5-6
BN.A., not available

Measurement o f s o i l b i o m a s s c a r b o n o r f l u s h - C . CO2 gas e v o l v e d t h r o u g h

m i c r o b i a l r e s p i r a t i o n d u r i n g the 10 d a y p e r i o d o f i n c u b a t i o n was a b s o r b e d by s o d a t a l c
( M e r c k Co.) in two c o u p l i n g U - t u b e s c o n n e c t e d with an i n c u b a t i o n b o t t l e for 10 m i n
( M a r u m o t o 1984). T h e a m o u n t o f CO~-C was o b t a i n e d f r o m the i n c r e m e n t o f U - t u b e weight
a c c o r d i n g to the m e t h o d d e s c r i b e d by M a r u m o t o et al. (1974). T h e a m o u n t o f CO2-C was
m e a s u r e d at 3, 7, a n d 10 days after f u m i g a t i o n . F l u s h - C was c a l c u l a t e d from the a m o u n t o f
CO2-C in the f u m i g a t e d s a m p l e m i n u s the a m o u n t o f CO2-C in the u n f u m i g a t e d ( c o n t r o l )
s a m p l e ( P o w l s o n et al. 1987).
Measurement of soil biomass nitrogen or flush-N. After d e t e r m i n i n g the a m o u n t s
o f CO2-C, the s a m p l e s o f the f u m i g a t e d a n d c o n t r o l soils (after 10 days o f i n c u b a t i o n ) were
extracted with 10% KC1 s o l u t i o n (soil : KC1 s o l u t i o n = 1 : 5). T h e m i n e r a l N c o n t e n t (NH~ +-
N and N O ~ - - N ) in the K C I extracts o f b o t h c o n t r o l a n d f u m i g a t e d s a m p l e s was m e a s u r e d
by steam d i s t i l l a t i o n with M g O and D e v a r d a ' s a l l o y (Bremner 1965b). F l u s h - N was calcu-
lated from the a m o u n t o f m i n e r a l i z e d N in the f u m i g a t e d s a m p l e m i n u s the a m o u n t in the
c o n t r o l sample.
 594 J. HAIDER, T. MARUMOTO, and A.K. AZAD

Table 2. Characteristics of soil samples collected.

Soil Text. Sand Silt Clay Org.-C T-N C/N CEC
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (meq/lO0 g) pH(H~O)
1 SC1 20.0 45.9 34.1 0.63 0.06 11.23 6.63 5.56
2 CL 27.2 42.0 30.8 0.68 0.06 10.53 7.14 6.68
3 SC 8.7 52.1 39.1 0.95 0.09 10.13 13.93 6.67
4 CL 24.5 45.2 30.3 0.45 0.04 10.25 4.29 7.04
5 SCL 17.4 52.1 30.5 1.06 0.11 9.60 8.33 5.71
6 SC 7.6 41.2 51.2 0.36 0.04 10.30 25.58 6.50
7 SC 8.1 43.6 48.3 0.74 0.06 12.30 17.89 5.47
8 CL 36.6 23_8 39.6 1.04 0.11 9.10 16.43 5.10

Table 3. Mineralization of microbial biomass-C and its contribution to total

organic C of soil during the 10 day period of incubation after fumigation.
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Flush-C Biomass-C
Biomass-C/organic C
Soil (0-10 days) (K:: 0.45) (%)
(mg/100 g dry soil) (mg/100 g dry soil)
1 3.83 8.51 1.35
2 5.93 13.20 1.94
3 8.60 19.11 2.01
4 2.32 5.16 1.15
5 11.80 26.22 2.47
6 5.38 11.96 3.32
7 4.91 10.91 1.47
8 9.14 20.3l 1.95

M e a s u r e m e n t of soil available N mineralized for 10 days after drying-rewetting

treatment. A f t e r oven d r y i n g (70"C, 24 h), the soil s a m p l e s were r e i n o c u l a t e d with 1%
o r i g i n a l soil, r e m o i s t e n e d with 50% o f W H C a n d i n c u b a t e d for 10 days. M i n e r a l i z e d N
c o n t e n t was d e t e r m i n e d after this p e r i o d by steam d i s t i l l a t i o n a n d the a m o u n t was assumed
to represent the a v a i l a b l e N r e m a i n i n g for a short p e r i o d o f t i m e in soil ( M a r u m o t o 1984).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

CHC13-fumigation and mineralization of CO2-C

In o u r studies the a m o u n t s o f C a n d N m i n e r a l i z e d were m e a s u r e d d u r i n g the p e r i o d o f
i n c u b a t i o n for u p to 10 days, J e n k i n s o n a n d P o w l s o n (1976a, b) r e p o r t e d t h a t the effect o f
CHC13 o n r a p i d r e s p i r a t i o n s u b s i d e d a n d that after 10 days there were no significant
differences b e t w e e n the f u m i g a t e d s a m p l e s a n d the u n f u m i g a t e d ones. In o u r study all the
soils s h o w e d a s i m i l a r t e n d e n c y except for the soil s a m p l e s 1-3. T a b l e 3 shows the a m o u n t
o f m i n e r a l i z a t i o n o f CO2-C (flush-C) a n d c a l c u l a t e d b i o m a s s - C values d u r i n g 10 d a y p e r i o d
o f i n c u b a t i o n after f u m i g a t i o n in the s a m p l e s from the eight soils. T h e a m o u n t o f flush-C
s h o w s a high c o r r e l a t i o n ( r = 0 . 9 0 , significant at the 1% level) with the o r g a n i c C c o n t e n t o f
the soil ( T a b l e 2). T h e m i n e r a l i z a t i o n o f CO2-C was the highest in soil 5 f o l l o w e d b y soil
8. T h e lowest a m o u n t was detected in soil 4.
Soils 1 a n d 2, as s h o w n in T a b l e 1, were collected from the same l o c a t i o n . H o w e v e r the
a m o u n t o f flush-C o b t a i n e d after 10 days o f i n c u b a t i o n was c l e a r l y h i g h e r in soil 2 t h a n in
soil 1. Soil 2 was c o l l e c t e d from a p e r m a n e n t g r a s s l a n d a n d soil 1 was a c r o p p e d a r a b l e soil
c u l t i v a t e d r e g u l a r l y for t h e past 10 years, w h i c h m a y h a v e reflected the higher flow o f c a r b o n
 Biomass-C and -N in Bangladesh Soils 595

~ i Soil no.
,H
om25
o5

-o
g
o 15
e6
2
~1(97y = 0.02x - 2.26
] vm
J O 4 r = = 0.854"*
.
i'
o TM
(_)
ZOO 400 600 80tl IQO0 lEO0
Org,-C (rag 100g-1 dry soil)
J ~ I'o > C o n t r o l
Fig. 2. Relationship between soil organic car-
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Period of incubation (days) bon content and biomass-C calculated during the
Fig. 1. Mineralization of dead biomass-C after 10 day period of incubation. ** Significant at 5%
chloroform fumigation, level. Numbers l-8 indicate soil samples.

sources in the grassland soil than in the cropped arable soil (Jenkinson and Ladd 1981;
Brookes et al. 1991).
On the other hand soils 6 and 7 were sampled from the same farm area. Soil 7 was
sampled from a planned long term experimental plot, but managed with different chemical
fertilizers and organic manures for one and a half year only, whereas soil 6 was collected
from a plot where the top soil was completely removed and rarely cultivated. The duration
of the management practices in soil 7 was clearly not sufficient to increase the microbial
population, as indicated by the insufficient increase of flush-C in that soil.
Although the crop productivity of soil 4 was relatively high (5.6 t/ha), as shown in
Table 1, due to the low microbial biomass content of the soil, the estimated amount of
flush-C was the lowest (2.32 mg 100 g-1 dry soil). Higher rice productivity of that soil was
probably due to application of higher doses of chemical fertilizers.
Figure 1 illustrates the rapid flush of COz-C in all the soils during the first few days of
incubation. CO2 production increased up to 10 days of incubation, but the rate of increment
was more rapid in the early days of incubation. A similar tendency was also reported by
Jenkinson and Powlson (1976a, b).

Q u a n t i t y of m i c r o b i a l b i o m a s s in soil
Table 3 shows the estimates of soil microbial biomass and biomass-C as a proportion
of total organic C of the eight soils. To estimate the soil microbial biomass, each author has
used an individual "Kc factor." In our work we used a Kc factor of 0.45 to calculate the
amount of soil microbial biomass, as in the case of Oades and Jenkinson (1979) and
Jenkinson and Ladd (1981). If the biomass-C content, calculated from flush-C, is compared
with the soil organic carbon content (Table 2), it can be seen that biomass-C differs in the
same manner as organic C of soil does. Marumoto (1984) also observed that the amount of
biomass-C increased with the increase of soil organic C content.
The contribution of biomass-C to soil organic C was about 2% in the soils investigated,
ranging from 1.35 to 3.32. Although the contents of organic C and total N in the soil samples
were lower than those of soils for agricultural use in the temperate zone, the contribution
was almost the same as that reported by Powlson et al. (1987), which indicates that the
 596 J. HAIDER, T. MARUMOTO, and A.K: AZAD

content of biomass-C in soil organic C varies within a definite proportion. The biomass-C
in soils with higher clay content accounts for between 2 to 4% of the total soil organic C
(Powlson and Jenkinson 1976; Brookes et al. 1984), which could be observed in soil 6 with
more than 51% clay content. The biomass-C in this soil accounted for more than 3% of the
total soil organic C. Soil 7, on the other hand, did not show a similar biomass content,
although the texture of this soil was identical with that of soil 6. This p h e n o m e n o n may be
due to the increase in the organic C content in soil 7, which was subjected to the application
of several organic manures and fertilizers for the past one and a half years.

Relationship between soil organic carbon and biomass carbon

The relationship between the soil organic C content (x) and the biomass-C during the
I0 day period of incubation (y) in the eight soils was as follows: y = 0 . 0 2 x - - 2 . 2 6 (r=0.85,
significant at the 5% level) as shown in Fig. 2. Biomass-C, which was calculated from the
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flush-C during the 10 day period of incubation, showed a similar tendency to that of the
organic-C contents in the soils. Powlson and Jenkinson (1976) reported the occurrence of
CO.,-C flush in the following order: grassland soil > cropped arable soil. This tendency also
could be observed in soils 1 and 2. Although soils 1 and 2 showed similar organic C contents
(0.63% in soil 1 and 0.68% in soil 2), the CO2-C flush was more than 1.5 times higher in soil
2 (grassland soil) than in soil 1 (cropped arable soil). This p h e n o m e n o n indicates that the
supply of organic matter from the roots is generally larger in grassland soil than in cropped
arable soil (Jenkinson and Ladd 1981). Furthermore,the ratio of biomass-C to organic C was
higher in soil 6 than in soil 7 in spite of the presence of similar amounts of biomass-C in
both soils. This difference may be ascribed to the high content of organic C in soil 7 which
was affected by the application of compost with a high C / N ratio of residual straw.

Mineralization of microbial biomass-N as influenced by fumigation

The total amount of N mineralized from the dead microbial biomass during the 10 day
period of incubation ranged from 0.47 mg 100 g-i dry soil in soil 8 (Table 4). Comparison
of the flush-N and C / N of biomass of the investigated soils (Tables 4 and 5) indicates that
in soil 2 the C / N ratio of biomass was higher compared to the relatively lower flush-N value.
A portion of the nitrogen released after fumigation in the grassland soil 2 may be reimmo-
bilized into the microbes which survived during the incubation period.
F o r the calculation o f biomass-N, the following equation is usually c o n s i d e r e d
(Brookes et al. 1985): B~ = FN/Kr~, where BN is the soil biomass-N, FN is the amount of N

Table 4. Mineralization of microbial biomass-N and its contribution to total

nitrogen of soil during the 10 day period of incubation after fumigation.
Flush-N Biomass-N Bomass-N/total N
Soil (0-10 days) (Kn: 0.68) of soil (%)
(rag/100 g dry soil) (rag/100 g dry soil)
1 0.85 1.25 2.08
2 0.47 0.69 1.15
3 1.04 1.52 1.69
4 0.80 1.18 2.95
5 1.17 1.72 1.56
6 0.68 1.00 2.50
7 1.00 1.47 2.45
8 1.88 2.77 2.52
 Biomass-C and -N in Bangladesh Soils 597

Table 5. Ratio of flush-C to flush-N and biomass-C

to biomass-N during the 10 day period of
incubation after fumigation.
Soil Flush-C/flush-N Biomass-C/biomass-N
1 4.51 6.81
2 12.62 19.13
3 8.30 12.57
4 2.89 4.37
5 10.09 15.24
6 7.95 11.96
7 4.91 7.42
8 4.85 7.33

mineralized from the dead biomass, and KN is the fraction of biomass-N mineralized,
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measured under standard conditions. Values for the KN factor ranging from 0.25 (Paul and
Juma 1981) to 0.63 (Amato and Ladd 1980) have been used so far for calculating the
microbial biomass-N. Value taken as 0.25 resulted in an extremely low C / N ratio ranging
between 2.1 and 3.0 for the biomass (Schnurer et al. 1985). For this reason, some authors
presented their data not on a biomass-N basis, but they analyzed the flush of nitrogen after
fumigation (Ross et al. 1980; Adams and Laughlin 1981). Factors like microbial immobiliza-
tion etc. can influence the KN value and make it difficult to estimate. In spite of these short
comings we adopted the value of 0.68 for KN, which was used by Brookes et al. (1985) and
Powlson et al. (1987). Table 4 shows the calculated biomass-N values of the eight different
Bangladesh soils, which ranged from 0.69 to 2.77 mg 100 g-1 dry soil. Biomass nitrogen
content of soil 2 was extremely low due to the immobilization, as already stated.
Table 4 also shows that the contribution of biomass-N (BN) to the total nitrogen content
of the soil ranged from 1.15 to 2.95% for the different soils. In spite of the low contents of
total N in the soil samples, the average value of2.11 was similar to that obtained by Brookes
et al. (1985) and Powlson et al. (1987).
By adopting the values of 0.45 and 0.68, respectively, for the Kc and KN factors, we
calculated the C / N ratio of the microbial biomass which ranged from 4.37 to 19.13 (Table
5). The average ratio was about 10, which was similar to that reported by Marumoto (1984).

Relationship between carbon and n i t r o g e n mineralized from killed microbial

biomass f o r 10 d a y s
The ratio of mineralized carbon (flush-C) and nitrogen (flush-N) which is presented in
Table 5 varied considerably, ranging from 2.89 to 12.62 due to the heterogeneity of the
samples collected and their management practices. However, the average value of 7.02 was
recorded, which agrees with the data (5.8 to 7.3 for a l0 day period of incubation) from
Powlson and Jenkinson (1976).

Contribution of biomass-N to crop productivity of collected soils in B a n g l a d e s h

Comparison of the crop productivity (Table 1) and biomass-N (Table 4) of the collected
soil samples, it indicates that the production of rice and other crops was closely related to
the biomass-N content of those soils. Other factors like chemical and organic fertilizer
management had also influenced the crop productivity, as observed in soil 4. However, crop
productivity depends mainly on the amount of available nutrients in soil, especially on the
nutrients in the microbial biomass (Anderson and Domsch 1980; Jenkinson and Ladd 1981;
 598 J. HAIDER, T. MARUMOTO, and A.K. AZAD

to

"O

2to Fig. 3. Relationship between biomass-N obtained

rd
E
O
o by fumigation method and available-N by oven-
.,4
6 drying method for a I0 day period of incubation.
I = i ** Significant at 5% level. Numbers 1-8 indicate soil
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Available-N (rag lOOg dry soil) samples.

M a r u m o t o et al. 1982b).
T h e c o r r e l a t i o n b e t w e e n the b i o m a s s - N c a l c u l a t e d b y the f u m i g a t i o n m e t h o d a n d
a v a i l a b l e N by the oven d r y i n g - r e w e t t i n g m e t h o d for a 10 d a y p e r i o d o f i n c u b a t i o n was
significantly high ( r = 0 . 8 3 , significant at the 5% level) for all the s a m p l e s (Fig. 3). Percent-
ages o f b i o m a s s - N to a v a i l a b l e - N were n e a r l y 30%. T h i s p r o p o r t i o n o f b i o m a s s - N in the
B a n g l a d e s h soils was r e l a t i v a l y l o w e r t h a n that r e c o r d e d in E u r o p e and J a p a n (55-77%)
( M a r u m o t o 1984). F u r t h e r m o r e , the a m o u n t s o f b i o m a s s - N p e r unit area in the B a n g l a d e s h
soils were c a l c u l a t e d from the d a t a in T a b l e 4. T h e a m o u n t o f b i o m a s s - N r a n g e d f r o m 6.9
to 27.7 kg h a - j (mean: 14.5 kg N h a - l ) . Based on the analysis o f 26 a g r i c u l t u r a l soils,
A n d e r s o n a n d D o m s c h (1980) stated t h a t the average q u a n t i t i e s o f C and N in the soil
m i c r o b i a l b i o m a s s were a b o u t 720 a n d 108 kg ha - j , respectively. T h e ratio o f b i o m a s s - N in
B a n g l a d e s h soils to G e r m a n soils was a b o u t 1 : 7.5. Based on this i n f o r m a t i o n a n d o u r
results, the contents o f o r g a n i c C, m i c r o b i a l b i o m a s s and a v a i l a b l e p l a n t nutrients in the
B a n g l a d e s h soils were significantly l o w e r t h a n t h o s e in the t e m p e r a t e r e g i o n soils where
intensive a g r i c u l t u r e is practiced.

Acknowledgments. We thank Mr. A.J.M.S. Karim for the physical analysis of the soils.

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