Bt. Christensen et Je. Olesen, NITROGEN MINERALIZATION POTENTIAL OF ORGANOMINERAL SIZE SEPARATES FROM SOILS WITH ANNUAL STRAW INCORPORATION, European journal of soil science, 49(1), 1998, pp. 25-36
With annual incorporation of straw, soil N mineralization is expected
to increase whereby requirements for fertilizer N inputs may be reduce
d. Samples of whole soil, clay (< 2 mu m), silt (2-30 mu m) and sand (
20-2000 mu m) sized organomineral separates from three soils with annu
al additions of straw ranging from 0 to 12 t ha(-1) were leached after
0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 16 weeks of incubation at 20 degrees C, to dete
rmine the content of NH4 + NO3. A three-pool model using first order k
inetics and fixed rate constants (N-1, k(1) = 0.231 day(-1); N-2, k(2)
= 0.00693 day(-1); N-3, k(3) = 0) was fitted to the mineralization da
ta. The mineralizability of whole soil N (mg N g(-1) N) differed among
soil types. Straw generally increased the fast N-1 and the passive N-
3 pool while the medium-term N-2 pool was reduced in size. The N-1, N-
2 and N-3 averaged 0.8, 2.6 and 96.6% of the whole soil N, respectivel
y. The N mineralizability increased in the order: sand < silt < clay.
The lability of N in a given size separate was almost similar across s
oil types and straw managements. The active N pools (N-1 + N-2) averag
ed 7.1% of the clay N and 2.2% of the silt N. The main difference was
related to the N-2 pool, which accounted for 5.5% in clay and 1.2% in
silt. Mineral N produced during incubation ranged from 63 to 105 kg N
ha(-1). Effects of straw disposal were small (< 11 kg N ha(-1)). Maxim
um response was at 4 t straw ha(-1); adding more straw diminished mine
ralization of N. Long-term annual incorporation of cereal straw contri
butes mainly soil N with a slow turnover.