Jm. Estavillo et al., EFFECTS OF CATTLE SLURRY AND MINERAL N FERTILIZER APPLICATIONS ON VARIOUS COMPONENTS OF THE NITROGEN-BALANCE OF MOWN GRASSLAND, Plant and soil, 188(1), 1997, pp. 49-58
It is essential to establish more accurate N balances for different so
il-plant systems in order to improve N use efficiency. In this study t
he N balance was studied in a poorly drained clayey loam soil under na
tural grassland supplied with either calcium ammonium nitrate or cattl
e slurry at two application rates. The aim was to determine the effici
ency of the N applied and the factors which affect this efficiency. Mi
neralization-immobilization of N was calculated by balance between the
quantified inputs and outputs of N. As N inputs increased, output via
herbage yield was accompanied by an increase in apparent immobilizati
on of N in the soil and by larger losses of N by denitrification. The
difference between cattle slurry and N fertilizer was that the slurry
behaved as a slow release fertilizer, its supply of mineral N being gr
eater in the periods of time when fertilizer was applied a long time a
go. Denitrification losses (up to 17% of the N applied) are suggested
to be the main factor to mitigate in order to increase N use efficienc
y. A decrease in net mineralization (up to 136 kg N ha(-1) year(-1)) w
as observed which was related to the mineral N application rate. There
was evidence to suggest that this decrease was due both to the immobi
lization of the N applied and to a decrease in the rate of gross miner
alization when mineral N was applied. Microbial biomass determinations
could not explain the changes in the mineralization-immobilization eq
uilibrium of N because of the great coefficients of variation for this
determination (mean value of 18%). Nevertheless, it contributed to ve
rify and explain some of the changes observed in this equilibrium.