Summary
Five crops of oats were grown over a 14-month period on a Chester silt loam soil fertilized with N15-labelled (NH4)2SO4. All plant material from the first four crops was returned to the soil. Following a fifth crop, oat tops and roots were harvested, and the soil was subjected to repeated extractions by autoclaving in 0.01M CaCl2. The distribution of N15 and of indigenous soil N among chemical fractions of the extracts, and in the acid-soluble and acid-soluble and acid-insoluble portions of the soil residues following 0.01M CaCl2 extraction, was remarkably similar. Since appreciable equilibrations between added N15 and the more resistant forms of soil organic N is unlikely, it is postulated that fertilizer N became incorporated in newly-formed complexes, similar to those already present in the soil. This view is in harmony with the finding that percentage removals of total and N15-labelled N remained almost the same, even with recovery of approximately 55 per cent of the amounts originally present. N mineralization capacity of the soil was reduced appreciably as a result of extraction.
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Stanford, G., Legg, J.O. & Chichester, F.W. Transformations of fertilizer nitrogen in soil. Plant Soil 33, 425–435 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01378232
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01378232