Enzymatic activity measured by microcalorimetry in soil amended with organic residues

Enzymatic activity is an important property for soil quality evaluation. Two sequences of experiments were carried out in order to evaluate the enzymatic activity in a soil (Rhodic Eutrudox) amended with cattle manure, earthworm casts, or sewage sludges from the municipalities of Barueri and Franca. The activity of commercial enzymes was measured by microcalorimetry in the same soil samples after sterilization. In the first experiment, the enzyme activities of cellulase, protease, and urease were determined in the soil samples during a three month period. In the second sequence of experiments, the thermal effect of the commercial enzymes cellulase, protease, and urease on sterilized soil samples under the same tretaments was monitored for a period of 46 days. The experimental design was randomized and arranged as factorial scheme in five treatments x seven samplings with five replications. The treatment effects were statistically evaluated by one-way analysis of variance. Tukey´s test was used to compare means at p < 0.05. The presence of different sources of organic residues increased the enzymatic activity in the sampling period. Cattle manure induced the highest enzymatic activity, followed by municipal sewage sludge, whereas earthworm casts induced the lowest activity, but differed from control treatment. The thermal effect on the enzyme activity of commercial cellulase, protease, and urease showed a variety of time peaks. These values probably oscillated due to soil physical-chemical factors affecting the enzyme activity on the residues

Catálogo dos Erotylidae (Coleoptera) Neotropicais Catalogue of Neotropical Erotylidae (Coleoptera)

<abstract language="eng">The present catalog is an inventory of names proposed in Erotylidae (from family through subspecies) ocurring in the Neotropical Region, up to the present date (1988). It updates the nomenclature of included taxa, adds taxonomic units proposed after the Kuhnt's Genera Insectorum (Kuhnt, 1909) and includes abbreviated references to the literature, which are fully cited at the end of this catalogue. The systematic order follows Kuhnt, 1909, and afterwards, the position given to each taxa by the original author