Abstract
Interactions between15N-labelled fertilizers applied at concentrations representative of the fertilizer microsite and the solubility of the nitrogenous component of soil organic matter were investigated in laboratory experiments. Soil organic N was solubilized in aγ-irradiated soil due to addition of NH3(aq), and the fertilizer-induced loss of unlabelled total N in the extracted soil (ΔTUs) increased with increasing N fertilizer concentration and soil pH. ΔTUs was linearly correlated with ammoniacal-N concentration and the pH of the fertilized soil within the range of 7.5-10 (r = 0.94).
Total organic N in the soil extract (OTe) increased rapidly up to day 14 following addition of 2000 mg urea-N kg−1 soil, but was then stable up to day 28. OTe of a range of soils increased from between 5 and 148 to between 15 and 368 mg N kg−1 soil after application of 1045 mg NH3-N kg−1 soil. While up to 25% of the organic N was solubilized by the fertilizer in nine soils, the change in total organic N in the extracts (ΔOTe) of three soils was not significant. The highest ΔOTe of 399 mg N kg−1 soil (35.4% of soil organic N) was measured after application of 2000 mg NH3-N kg−1 soil.
pH and ΔOTe decreased in the order of NH3(aq) > urea > di-ammonium phosphate > ammonium sulphate at equivalent rates of N addition. A negative ΔOTe was measured following application of ammonium sulphate. ΔOTe was correlated with the pH of the fertilized soil but not ammoniacal-N concentration for different N fertilizer sources.
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Sen, S., Chalk, P.M. Solubilization of soil organic N by alkaline-hydrolysing N fertilizers. Fertilizer Research 38, 131–139 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00748773
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00748773