Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T06:28:39.459Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Partitioning losses of nitrogen fertilizer between leaching and denitrification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

T. M. Addiscott  and
D. S. Powlson
T. M. Addiscott
Affiliation:
Soil Science Department, AFRC Institute of Arable Crops Research, Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts AL5 2JQ, UK
D. S. Powlson
Affiliation:
Soil Science Department, AFRC Institute of Arable Crops Research, Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts AL5 2JQ, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

When 15N is used to trace the fate of N fertilizer applied in spring to winter wheat crops, some is not recovered in the crop or the soil and has to be presumed lost. In 13 experiments made from 1980 to 1983 on three widely differing soils, these losses ranged from 1 to 35%. We partitioned them between leaching and denitrification by using models to estimate the loss by leaching, talcing into account the N absorbed by the crops, and subtracting this loss from the total loss to obtain the apparent percentage loss by denitrification, LDN. An analysis of variance showed that LDN increased significantly with the quantity of N applied, so the study considered LDN values for a standard N application of 150 kg/ha subsequently. Regressions showed that LDN was better related to the wetness of the soil during the 3 weeks after fertilizer application than to the corresponding amount of rain, as would be expected for denitrification. Values of LDN could not, however, be satisfactorily related to soil temperature, probably because the range of temperatures was too narrow. The apparent losses by denitrification were, on average, nearly twice as large as those by leaching, but the ratio varied greatly between experiments.

Type
Crops and Soils
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 118 , Issue 1 , February 1992 , pp. 101 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Addiscott, T. M. (1983). Kinetics and temperature relationships of mineralization and nitrification in Rothamsted soils with differing histories. Journal of Soil Science 34, 343–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Addiscott, T. M. & Bland, G. J. (1988). Nitrate leaching models and soil heterogeneity. In Nitrogen Efficiency inAgricultural Soils (Eds Jenkinson, D. S. & Smith, K. A.), pp. 394–408. Barking: Elsevier Applied Science.Google Scholar
Addiscott, T. M. & Whitmore, A. P. (1987). Computer simulation of changes in soil mineral nitrogen and crop nitrogen during autumn, winter and spring. Journal ofAgricultural Science, Cambridge 109, 141–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Addiscott, T. M., Heys, P. J. & Whitmore, A. P. (1986). Application of simple leaching models in heterogeneous soils. Geoderma 38, 185–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goulding, K. W. T. & Johnston, A. E. (1989). Long-term atmospheric deposition and soil acidification at Rothamsted Experimental Station, England. In Acid Deposition -Sources, Effects and Controls (Ed. Longhurst, J. W. S.), pp. 213–228. Letchworth, UK: British Library Technical Communications.Google Scholar
Jarvis, S. C., Barraclough, D., Williams, J. & Rook, A. J. (1991). Patterns of denitrification loss from grazed grasslands: Effects of N fertilizer imputs at different sites. Plant and Soil 131, 77–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkinson, D. S. & Parry, L. C. (1989). The nitrogen cycle Partitioning losses of nitrogen fertilizer 107 in the Broadbalk Wheat Experiment: a model for the turn-over of nitrogen through the soil microbial biomass. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 21, 535–541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, A. J., Powlson, D. S., Poulton, P. R. & Jenkinson, D. S. (1989). Unused fertilizer nitrogen in arable soils - its contribution to nitrate leaching. Journalof the Science of Food and Agriculture 46, 407–419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, R. V. (1987). Effect of field fertilizer practices on labelled ammonium nitrogen transformations and its utilization by winter wheat. Plant and Soil 97, 189–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkin, T. B. (1987). Soil microsites as a source of denitriflcation variability. Soil Science Society of America Journal 51, 1194–1199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parton, W. J., Morgan, J. A., Altenhofen, J. M. & Harper, L. A. (1988). Ammonia volatilization from spring wheat plants. Agronomy Journal 80, 419–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powlson, D. S. (1988). Measuring and minimising losses of fertilizer nitrogen in arable agriculture. In NitrogenEfficiency in Agricultural Soils (Eds Jenkinson, D. S. & Smith, K. A.), pp. 231–245. Barking: Elsevier Applied Science.Google Scholar
Powlson, D. S., Pruden, G., Johnston, A. E. & Jenkinson, D. S. (1986). The nitrogen cycle in the Broadbalk Wheat Experiment: recovery and losses of 15N-labelled fertilizer applied in spring and impact of nitrogen from the atmosphere. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 107, 591–609.Google Scholar
Powlson, D. S., Hart, P. B. S., Poulton, P. R., Johnston, A. E. & Jenkinson, D. S. (1992). Influence of soil type, crop management and weather on the recovery of 16Nlabelled fertilizer applied to winter wheat in spring. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 118, 83–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Recous, S., Fresneau, C., Faurie, G. & Mary, B. (1988). The fate of 15N-labelled urea and ammonium nitrate applied to a winter wheat crop. II. Plant uptake and N efficiency. Plant and Soil 112, 215–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, K. A., Elmes, A. E., Howard, R. S. & Franklin, M. F. (1984). The uptake of soil- and fertilizer-nitrogen by barley growing under Scottish climatic conditions. Plantand Soil 76, 49–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, K. A., Howard, R. S. & Crichton, I. J. (1988). Efficiency of recovery of nitrogen fertilizer by winter wheat. In Nitrogen Efficiency in Agricultural Soils (Eds Jenkinson, D. S. & Smith, K. A.), pp. 73–84. Barking: Elsevier Applied Science.Google Scholar