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Updated: Aug 23, 2026

Assessment of Waste-Derived Biochars on the Health and Biological Activity of Soil
Published on: October 10, 2025
Microbial biomass in a soil amended with different types of organic wastes
Naceur Jedidi1, Abdennaceur Hassen, Oswald van Cleemput
1Institut National de Recherche Scientifique et Technique, BP 95, 2050 Hammam Lif, Tunisia. Naceur.Jedidi@inrst.rnrt.tn
Abstract:
Application of different types of organic wastes may have a marked effect on soil microbial biomass and its activity. The objective of this study was to quantify the amount of microbial biomass in a loamy-clayey soil, amended with different types of organic waste residues (composts of municipal solid waste of different ages, sewage sludge and farmyard manure) and incubated for 8 weeks at 25 degrees C and two-thirds of field capacity, using the fumigation-extraction method. Both microbial biomass-C and -N (BC and BN, respectively) appeared to be dependent on the type of organic waste residues, on their degree of stability, and on their chemical characteristics. In general, organic wastes increased the microbial biomass-C content in the soil and the microbial BC was positively correlated with the organic C content, the C/N, neutral detergent fibre/N (NDF/N) and acid detergent fibre/N (ADF/ N) ratios. The microbial biomass content decreased according to the period of incubation, especially when the compost used was immature. The microbial biomass-N was positively correlated with the total N and percentage of hemicellulose. The microbial biomass-C was linearly related with the microbial biomass-N and the ratio BC/BN was exponentially related with the BC.
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