Measuring soil enzymes: Enzymes are measured indirectly by determining their activity in the laboratory using biochemical assays. Enzyme assays reflect potential activity and do not represent true in situ activity levels and must be viewed as an index.
When possible, compare the site of interest to samples taken from an adjacent, undisturbed site on the same soil
type. Alternatively, for a newly implemented land management system, track changes from time zero to five
or more years with annual sampling to detect temporal changes in activity of soil enzymes.