Soil biodiversity is hampering day by day due to various anthropogenic activities. One of them is use of inorganic fertilizer. So are the side-effects?
@ Debabrata, inorganic fertilizer may favor fast growing plants to dominate a habitat after blocking smaller species. It can increase the salt content in the soil resulted favor of salt loving species and affected some plants to burning. It can create a toxic buildup of chemicals in soils , and long-term use changes the pH of the soil which affect the biodiversity.
@ J. C. Tarafdar Sir.. as usual I always wait for your answer. Your each answer has loads of knowledge. Thank you sir.
Cannabis grow operators (when growing Cannabis was lucrative) would load soil with a cocktail of chemical fertilizers then after a few harvests would dump the soil in forests, fields and backyards. These dump sites were visible from aircraft and would alert authorities. After a few harvests, the soil was replaced to maximize yield. Anecdotal, not much literature about the dark side of some operators. One can read about a few grow-ops that were raided by authorities in newspapers. The white conspicuous perlite was a dead giveaway.
The liberal use of chemical fertilizers renders the soil into a poor growing medium with high concentrations of salts and the used soil would need to be replaced with fresh new soil.
@ Lawrence your answer is not that clear. Will you kindly explain properly. Thank you
Debabrata Nath The liberal use of chemical fertilizers rendered the soil into a poor growing medium with high concentrations of salts and the used soil would be replaced with fresh new soil to maintain high crop yeilds.
It can increase the salt content in the soil resulted favor of salt loving species and affected some plants to burning. It can create a toxic buildup of chemicals in soils , and long-term use changes the pH of the soil which affect the biodiversity.
It can increase the salt content in the soil resulted favor of salt loving species and affected some plants to burning. It can create a toxic buildup of chemicals in soils , and long-term use changes the pH of the soil which affect the biodiversity.
In General Continuous use of inorganic fertilizers, which primarily affect soil health, can result in poor crop yield. A healthy soil with soil biodiversity responds much better to inorganic fertilizers, yet relying only on these fertilizers degrades soil biodiversity through influencing soil microorganisms as well as soil chemical characteristics such as pH and EC. By altering the environment, this change in chemical and physical Properties has an impact on soil biodiversity.
In Specifically
Inorganic fertilisers made the soil more acidic, causing it to become saline/saline sodic, resulting in decreased biodiversity. There are only halophiles and halophytes present.
Plant diversity is being lost as a result of over-fertilization of soils. Fast-growing plants can take over a habitat with more nutrients, preventing smaller species from getting enough sunlight.
@Fahim Nawaz
Continuous use of some inorganic fertilizers have an effect on soil pH (most reduce soil pH). This makes the soil unsuitable for crops and become attractive to gram negative bacteria. Soil pH determines availability of some essential plant nutrients such as P, Ca, N, e.t.c. which are key for plant growth.
Plant tissues absorb and accumulate heavy metals more frequently as a result of continuous and consistent application of inorganic fertilisers, lowering crop nutritional and grain quality. As a result, excessive use of inorganic fertilisers has resulted in soil, air, and water pollution as a result of nutrient leaching, soil physical characteristics destruction, toxic chemical accumulation in water bodies, and other factors, as well as severe environmental problems and biodiversity loss. As a result, agrochemicals constitute one of the most significant and prominent sources of pollution in developing nations, posing a risk to human and cattle health.
Continuous use of inorganic fertilizers may render the soil to loss it's quality in terms of physical, chemical and biological properties. For physical it makes soil to be loose and friable; for chemical, the fertilizer may react or chelate with others chemicals compounds in the soil to become toxic (salt) to the soil medium and these may affect the microbial population and their activities there by reducing the soil diversity as well as affecting soil plant relationships.
inorganic fertilization feeds the plant directly and does not go through the soil microbiota. To maintain the growth and multiplication of bacteria, fungi, soil insects... they must be fed with organic matter, which will be mineralized with this microflora before being used by the plant. This is of course associated with improved physical properties (permeability, soil aeration, etc.), chemical properties (pH buffer effect, formation of a clay-humic complex, etc.) and soil heating
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