Microbial Biomass Carbon and Total Organic Carbon of Soils as Affected by Rubber Cultivation

Soil samples were collected from different rubber fields in twenty-five plots selected randomly in the Experimental Farm of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agriculture Sciences located in Hainan, China, to analyse the ecological effect of rubber cultivation. The results showed that in the tropical rubber farm,soil microbial biomass C (MBC) and total organic C (TOC) were relatively low in the content but highly correlated with each other. After rubber tapping, soil MBC of mature rubber fields decreased significantly,by 55.5%, compared with immature rubber fields. Soil TOC also decreased but the difference was not significant. Ratios of MBC to TOC decreased significantly. The decreasing trend of MBC stopped at about ten years of rubber cultivation. After this period, soil MBC increased relatively while soil TOC still kept in decreasing. Soil MBC changes could be measured to predict the tendency of soil organic matter changes due to management practices in a tropical rubber farm several years before the changes in soil TOC become detectable.