The reuse of reclaimed wastewater for irrigation of agricultural fields greatly influences the activity of soil microorganisms through the input of organic compounds. Due to the production of exoenzymes by microorganisms for the decomposition of substrates it can be assumed that the irrigation with treated wastewater (TWW) has a strong influence on the soil enzyme pool. In this study the activity of ten exoenzymes, which catalyses processes in C, N and P nutrient cycles, were determined in 3 different soils in 0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-50, 50-70 and 70-100 cm soil depth. The soils were used for agriculture and irrigated with reclaimed wastewater reused after a secondary treatment step. Additionally a control after freshwater irrigation was studied. Due to the... |