Soil solarization: effects on soil microbiological parameters

Soil solarization, obtained by covering soil with plastic films, is a useful practice able to reduce soil pathogen populations. Light plastic films (LPFs) are nowadays widely used especially in open and greenhouse vegetable crop cultivations in Southern Italy, as they are able to raise soil temperature more than 20◦C above air temperature. The solarization treatment with LPFs is characterized by a low cost and low environmental impact. The wide use of these technique causes a concern about the side effect of solarization on soil microbial populations, which are affected the same as plant pathogens by soil heating. As scientific literature pays scant attention to the effect of soil heating on soil microbial parameters, this paper studied the effects of solarization on soil microbial biomass, soil respiration, and soil enzymatic activity in the presence of organic amendments and the soil fumigant dazomet. Solarization appears to be an effective practice able to control nematodes, even though it may cause serious stress on the soil microbial biomass. In addition, it was demonstrated that the organic amendments exert a protective role keeping soil microbial biomass and enzymatic activities protected from the detrimental effect of heating.