The importance of microbial urea turnover in N cycling was investigated in three agricultural soils by comparison of gross N mineralization determined by the IS N-xr R dilution technique and urea turnover determined by a new IR C-urea tracer technique. Average urea turnover rates were 1.5 to 4.2 Wg N g 3I d 3I indicating that the soil urea pool was turned over every 9 to 30 min. Urea turnover rates were generally lowest in set-aside soil with increasing activities in bulk and rhizosphere soil from a barley field. Gross N mineralization and urea turnover rates were correlated (r = 0.79, P 6 0.005) and of similar size in the three soils. The high urea turnover rates indicated that urea-N was immobilized directly in soil microorganisms, rather than mineralized to the free xr R pool. Our study suggests that microbial urea turnover, by-passing the conventional mineralizationimmobilization pathway involving a free xr R pool, has a significant role in N cycling of agricultural soils. z 1998 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.
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