Abstract
Nitrogen from poultry manure (PM) and ammoniacal fertilizers undergoes rapid nitrification upon addition to soils, making it highly susceptible to leaching and thus creating a potential for groundwater contamination by nitrate-N. Any management technique that could delay nitrification would be desirable. A laboratory incubation study was conducted to determine the effect of thiosulfate, a known nitrification inhibitor, on nitrification in a loamy sand soil amended with five N sources, including two poultry manures and three N fertilizers [(NH4)2SO4, NH4NO3, CO(NH2)2]. The manures or fertilizers were added to a soil-sand mixture alone or in combination with Na2S2O at a rate of 100 mg N kg-1 for the inorganic N sources and 147 mg N kg-1 and 122 mg N kg-1 for PM-1 and PM-2 respectively. All treatments were incubated for 12 weeks and analyzed periodically for NO3-N and NH4-N.
Thiosulfate was most effective with NH4NO3, maintaining 100% inhibition of nitrification throughout the 12 week study, and with (NH4)2SO4 (89% inhibition at 12 weeks). Thiosulfate also inhibited nitrification from urea and poultry manure, but the inhibitory effect diminished later in the incubation. Urea had 81% inhibition of nitrification after eight weeks, decreasing to 26% by week 12, while the manures averaged 89% inhibition after four weeks and 20% at week 12. Net mineralization of organic N from PM was also reduced by the use of thiosulfate, particularly for PM-1 where the percentage of organic N mineralized decreased from 42% after four weeks incubation to 3% at week 12. Therefore, while thiosulfate can reduce nitrification from manures, and thus the potential for nitrate leaching, the timing of manure application will influence the effect of thiosulfate on the availability of manure N for plant uptake or leaching.
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Sallade, Y.E., Sims, J.T. Evaluation of thiosulfate as a nitrification inhibitor for manures and fertilizers. Plant Soil 147, 283–291 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00029080
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00029080