Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

INFLUENCE OF SUGAR INDUSTRY EFFLUENTS ON SOIL PROTEASE ACTIVITY

M. Nagaraju G. Narasimha and V. Rangaswamy

Abstract

Discharge of sugar industry effluents into agricultural lands significantly changes soil processes such as nutrient cycling and organic matter processing. Knowledge of these changes is important so that the effect of sugar industry effluents on ecosystem may be assessed. In the present study, sugar industry effluent discharged (test) and undischarged soil (control) samples were collected from the surrounding areas of sugar industry, analyzed the physicochemical and biological properties and measured the soil protease activity. Except soil pH and sand percentage, remaining all other physicochemical, biological properties and protease activities were higher in the test soil sample than control. Moreover, protease activity was increased by increasing the concentration of effluent in the control soil sample. But enzyme activity was declined with time.