The total microbial activity in the soils (treatment and control) wasmeasuredbymonitoringfluoresceindiacetatehydrolysis(FDA) as described by Schnürer and Rosswall (1982), with modifications. Briefly, 2 g of soil collected from glass containers on days 0, 20, 40, and 80 was incubated in a 250-mL Erlenmeyer flask containing 49.75 mL of sterile 60 mM sodium phosphate buffer, pH 7.6. The reaction was started by adding 0.25 mL of a FDA solution (2 mg mL1)andincubated in a shaker incubator (New Brunswick, Excella E24) at room temperature and 200 rpm. A490 was measured using a UV/Vis spectrophotometer (Thermo Scientific, Spectronic Genesys2)afterthe removalof thesoilbycentrifugation and filtration. The samples were analyzed in triplicate