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Microbiological regulation of the biogeochemical nitrogen cycle

Regulación microbiana del ciclo bíogeoquímico del nitrógeno

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Abstract

Most nitrogen transformations in soil are carried out by micro-organisms. An understanding of the microbiological processes is thus necessary in order for us to devise management practices in agricultural ecosystems, which will optimize plant root uptake of nitrogen and minimize nitrogen losses from the systems. Some aspects of the individual microbiological processes in the nitrogen cycle are discussed and their importance for an efficient management of agroecosystems.

In soil various groups of organisms compete for available inorganic nitrogen and quantitative data are needed on the uptake kinetics for these various groups in order to be able to assess their competitive ability under different conditions.

The influence of abiotic factors such as oxygen concentration, inorganic nitrogen concentration and pH is discussed in relation to the different processes.

The importance of acetylene as a tool in nitrogen cycling studies is discussed briefly.

Resumen

La mayoría de las transformaciones del nitrógeno en el suelo ocurren a través de los micro-organismos. Se requiere asi un conocimiento de los procesos microbiológicos con el fin de desarrollar las prácticas de manejo de los sistemas agrícolas que optimicen la absorción de nitrógeno por las raices y que minimicen las pérdidas de nitrógeno de los sistemas. Se discuten algunos aspectos de ciertos procesos microbiológicos en el ciclo de nitrógeno como su importancia para el manejo eficiente de agroecosistemas.

Varios grupos de microorganismos compiten por el nitrógeno disponible y se requieren dados cuantitativos sobre la cinética de absorción de estos grupos de manera de estimar su capacidad de competir bajo diferentes condiciones.

La influencia de los factores abióticos tales como la concentración de oxígeno, la concentración de nitrógeno inorgánico y el pH se discuten en relación a los diferentes procesos.

Se discute también la importancia del acetileno como herramienta para estudiar el ciclo de nitrógeno.

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  1. Department of Microbiology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-750 07, Uppsala, Sweden

    T. Rosswall

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Rosswall, T. Microbiological regulation of the biogeochemical nitrogen cycle. Plant Soil 67, 15–34 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02182752

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