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Available organic nitrogen in temperate, subtropical, and tropical soils extracted with different solutions

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Abstract

Extraction of organic N by chemical solutions has been used to assess the amount of available N in soil. We tested the efficiency of several solutions in extracting organic N from tropical, subtropical and temperate soils. A conventional 0.067 M phosphate buffer successfully extracted organic N from all 23 soils examined. High-performance size exclusion chromatograms showed a single peak at about 7,800 Da for all phosphate buffer extracts irrespective of soil types. The peak area correlated with the organic N concentration of extracts. Tropical soils had lower retention of organic N than other soils according to the conventional and sequential extraction with phosphate buffer. Organic N extracted with sulfuric acid was significantly (P < 0.001) correlated with the amount of extracted Fe, suggesting that Fe might play a role in the retention of organic N in soil.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Naruo Matsumoto (Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences: JIRCAS), Dr. Ken Nakamura (JIRCAS), Dr. Takuji Nakamura (National Institute of Crop Science), Dr. Nobuyuki Kabaki (National Agricultural Research Center), and Ms Asako Mori (The University of Tokyo) for sharing soil samples.

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  1. Miwa Okamoto

    Present address: Rhizosphere Environment Research Team, National Agricultural Research Center for Hokkaido Region, 1 Hitsujigaoka, Toyohira-ku, Sapporo, 062-8555, Japan

  2. Kensuke Okada

    Present address: National Agricultural Research Center, 3-1-1 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8666, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113-8657, Japan

    Miwa Okamoto

  2. Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8686, Japan

    Kensuke Okada

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  1. Miwa Okamoto
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  2. Kensuke Okada
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Correspondence to Miwa Okamoto.

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Okamoto, M., Okada, K. Available organic nitrogen in temperate, subtropical, and tropical soils extracted with different solutions. Biol Fertil Soils 44, 533–537 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-007-0240-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-007-0240-8

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