IMPACT OF FISH PROCESSING BY-PRODUCT AMENDMENT ON SOIL PROPERTIES

Abstract

A pot experiment was carried out at the Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy in Lithuania to examine the possibilities of fish processing wastes to improve soil properties. The fish bones powder (FBP) was mixed with the soil, it was placed into the special vegetative pots of 5 l in volume up to the thickness of 25 cm. The soil type was Endocalcaric Endogleyic Luvisol (WRB 2014, update 2015) and according to granulometric composition was medium heavy loam. The experiment has designed in 4 variants and 6 replications. Soil samples were collected from the substrates in the vegetative pots 360 days (twelve months) after the application of fish processing by-products.

The results obtained show that FBP application has significantly influenced the increase of organic carbon, available phosphorus, potassium and calcium contents in tested soil. The amount of FBP application didn’t show any noticeable impact on soil pH value, magnesium and sulphur content in medium heavy loam soil. Although the total nitrogen and mineral nitrogen contents have increased in soil a significant changes were found only after use of 6.5 t ha^-1 FBP rate.

The FBP application has significantly influenced the increase of microbiota abundance, microbial biomass C and microbial biomass N in tested soil. The microbial biomass C and N directly depended on the (FBP) rate.