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Distribution of15N in the soil-plant system during a four-year field lysimeter study with barley (Hordeum distichum L.) and perennial meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis Huds.)

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Abstract

An annual cereal, barley, and a perennial grass ley, meadow fescue, were grown in field lysimeters in Sweden and fertilized with 12 and 20g Ca(NO3)2-N m−2 yr−1, respectively. Isotope-labeled (15N) fertilizer was added during year 1 of the study, whereafter similar amounts of unlabeled N were added during years 2 and 3. The grass ley lysimeters were ploughed after the growing season of year 3 and sown with barley during year 4. The barley harvest in year 1 removed 59% of the added fertilizer N, while the fertilizer N export by two meadow fescue harvests in year 1 was 65%. The labeled N export decreased rapidly after year 1, especially in the barley, but increased slightly after ploughing of the grass ley.

The microbial biomass, measured with the chloroform fumigation method, incorporated a maximum of 1.4–1.7% of the labeled N during the first seven weeks after application. Later on, the incorporation stabilized at less than 1% in both cropping systems.

The susceptibility of the residual labeled N to mineralization was evaluated three years after application by means of long-term laboratory incubations. The curves of cumulative mineralized N were described by a two-component first-order regression model that differentiated between an available and a more recalcitrant fraction of potentially mineralizable N. There was no difference in the amounts of potentially mineralizable N between the cropping systems. The labeled N comprised 5 and 2% of the amounts of potentially mineralizable N in the available and more recalcitrant fraction, respectively. The mineralization rate constants for the labeled N were almost twice as high as for the total potentially mineralizable N. The available fraction of the total potentially mineralizable N was 12%, while twice that proportion of the labeled N was available.

It was concluded that the short-term ley did not differ from the annual crop with respect to the early disposition of the fertilizer N and the behaviour of the residual organic N.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Box 7025, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-75007, Uppsala, Sweden

    T. Lindberg & J. Schnürer

  2. Department of Water and Environmental Studies, University of Linköping, S-58183, Linköping, Sweden

    T. A. Bonde & T. Rosswall

  3. Department of Soil Science, Division of Water Management, Box 7072, S-75007, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden

    L. Bergström

  4. Division of Agricultural Ecology, Department of Ecology and Environmental Research, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7072, S-75007, Uppsala, Sweden

    R. Pettersson

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  1. T. Lindberg
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Lindberg, T., Bonde, T.A., Bergström, L. et al. Distribution of15N in the soil-plant system during a four-year field lysimeter study with barley (Hordeum distichum L.) and perennial meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis Huds.). Plant Soil 119, 25–37 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02370266

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