Effect of Liquid Cow Manure on Chemical and Biological Properties in an Andisol

The aim of this work was to establish the effect of the dose of liquid cow manure (LCM) on some chemical properties and biological activity in an Andisol. This study was carried out under laboratory conditions using an Andisol and LCM from a dairy farm located in the South of Chile. The dose of LCM were the equivalent to 0 (S0), 100 (S100), 200, (S200) and 300 (S300) thousand L ha. This amount is equivalent to regular agronomic LCM applications. The chemical characterization indicated that the LCM addition modified all the tested Andisol chemical properties. These begin to return to the initial conditions from 10 days on, with the exception of EC, K and DOC. The CCO2 evolution indicated that LCM incorporation at increasing dose enhanced the respiratory activity. Enzyme activity was greater in the amended soils than in S0. The results of this study indicated that the period of time necessary for the LCM amended soils returning to a similar behavior to S0 is more than 10 days, with a strong correlation between the chemical properties of the amended soils and their biological activity, mainly C-CO2 evolution.