Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-03T19:24:10.271Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Potential rates of denitrification in two field soils in southern England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

M. M. Iqbal
M. M. Iqbal
Affiliation:
Nuclear Institute for Food and Agriculture, Tarnab, Peshawar, Pakistan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Potential rates of denitrification from two field soils, differing in past history, were measured by anaerobic incubation of fresh samples in a glasshouse maintained at 15–25 °C at ARC Letcombe Laboratory, Wantage, Oxfordshire in 1981. Nitrate was not limiting. The topsoils (0–20 cm) from both sites denitrified more than the subsoils (20–60 cm). The production of nitrous oxide was positively correlated with the carbon content of the soils while potential rates of denitrification in the two soils were similar. The total accumulated loss of nitrogen was greater from the soil with the greater organic carbon content. The use of acetylene showed that the denitrification losses were underestimated by measuring only nitrous oxide. N2O was still being reduced to N2 even after 100 h continuous exposure to acetylene.

Type
Crops and Soils
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 118 , Issue 2 , April 1992 , pp. 223 - 227
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

Brewer, P. G. & Riley, J. P. (1965). The automated determination of nitrate in sea water. Deep Sea Research 12, 765–772.Google Scholar
Burford, J. R. & Bremner, J. M. (1975). Relationships between the denitrification capacities of soils and total, water-soluble and readily decomposable soil organic matter. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 7, 389–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burford, J. R., Dowdell, R. J. & Crees, R. (1981). Emission of nitrous oxide to the atmosphere from directdrilled and ploughed clay soils. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 32, 219–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colbourn, P., Harper, I. W. & Iqbal, M. M. (1984). Denitrification losses from 15N-labelled calcium nitrate fertilizer in a clay soil in the field. Journal of Soil Science 35, 539–547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, G. W. (1976). A review of the effects of agriculture on the chemical composition and quality of surface and underground waters. In Agriculture and Water Quality, pp. 5–57. Technical Bulletin no. 32, Ministry of Fisheries and Food. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Crooke, W. M. & Simpson, W. E. (1971). Determination of ammonium in Kjeldahl digests of crops by an automated procedure. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 22, 9–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, K. & Dowdell, R. J. (1981). An isothermal gas chromatographic method for the simultaneous estimation of oxygen, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide content of gases in the soil. Journal of Chromatographic Science 19, 107–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobson, S. N. & Alexander, M. (1980). Nitrate loss from soil in relation to temperature, carbon source and denitrifier population. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 12, 501–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jarvis, M. G. (1973). Soils of Wantage and Abingdon Districts. Harpenden: Soil Survey of England and Wales.Google Scholar
McElroy, M. B., Wofsy, S. C. & Young, E. Y. (1977). The nitrogen cycle: perturbations due to man and their impact on atmospheric N2O and O3. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B277, 159–181.Google Scholar
Myers, R. J. K. & McGarity, J. W. (1971). Factors influencing high denitrifying activity in the subsoil of solodized solonetz. Plant and Soil 35, 145–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, B., Ryden, J. C. & Whitehead, D. C. (1988). Some relationships between denitrification potential and fractions of organic carbon in air-dried and field moist soil. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 20, 737–742.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walkley, A. & Black, I. A. (1934). An examination of the Degtjareff method for determining soil organic matter and proposed modification of the chromic acid titration method. Soil Science 37, 29–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, C. P. & Goulding, K. W. T. (1989). Influence of soil carbon content on denitrification from fallow land during autumn. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 49, 131–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yeomans, J. C. & Beauchamp, E. G. (1978). Limited inhibition of nitrous oxide reduction in soil in the presence of acetylene. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 10, 517–519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoshinari, T. & Knowles, R. (1976). Acetylene inhibition of nitrous oxide reduction by denitrifying bacteria. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 69, 705–710.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed