C-N elemental and isotopic investigation in agricultural soils: Insights on the effects of zeolitite amendments

Abstract

In this paper we present an elemental and isotopic investigation of carbon and nitrogen in the soil-plant system. Plants grown in an unamended soil were compared to plants grown in a soil amended with natural and NH4+-enriched zeolitites. The aim was to verify that zeolitites at natural state increase the chemical fertilization efficiency and the nitrogen transfer from NH4+-enriched zeolitites to plants. Results showed that plants grown on plots amended with zeolitites have generally a δ15N approaching that of chemical fertilizers, suggesting an enhanced nitrogen uptake from this specific N source with respect to the unamended plot. The δ15N of plants grown on NH4+-enriched zeolitites was strongly influenced by pig-slurry δ15N (employed for the enrichment process), confirming the nitrogen transfer from zeolitites to plants. The different agricultural practices are also reflected in the plant physiology as recorded by the carbon discrimination factor, which generally increases in plots amended with natural zeolitites, indicating better water/nutrient conditions

Impact of Sequential Treatments with Natural and Na-Exchanged Chabazite Zeolite-Rich Tuff on Pig-Slurry Chemical Composition

“…Other forms of pre-exchanged zeolites have been found to increase adsorption performances, such as H-exchanged forms [22]. The use of different kinds of natural and pre-exchanged ZTs as a soil amendment has been studied extensively in terms of modification of the soil physic-chemical characteristics, reduced N leaching, increased N use Water 2020, 12, 310 3 of 20 efficiency, water use efficiency, and crop yield [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Zeolites mitigation potential concerning some greenhouse gasses (like CO 2 and N 2 O) and other harmful gasses like NO x and, especially NH 3 , has also been addressed in several studies [32][33][34][35][36].…”

“…Through a series of batch experiments, they obtained a reduction from 15% to 30% of the total amount of NH 4 + of the treated PS; the process was also scaled to a farm level with a small prototype tank (10 m 3 volume) that confirmed the obtained results. The NH 4 -enriched ZT produced through the prototype was then used as a soil amendment in the ZeoLIFE project (LIFE10 ENV/IT/000321) with interesting results in terms of crop yield increments, chemical fertilizers reduction, and environmental protection (reduced NO 3 − leaching) [25,36,37].…”

Traceability and Authentication of Manila Clams from North-Western Adriatic Lagoons Using C and N Stable Isotope Analysis

“…Analytical uncertainties (1 sigma) were in the order of ±0.1‰ and ±0.3‰ for C and N, respectively, as described by previous research [ 37 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 ].…”

Effects of Different Chabazite Zeolite Amendments to Sorption of Nitrification Inhibitor 3,4-Dimethylpyrazole Phosphate (DMPP) in Soil

“…A particularity of ZTs is their high CEC, which allows eventually a pre-enrichment with specific cations (i.e., with NH 4 + ) to use them as slow-release fertilizers (Dwairi 1998;Colella 1999;Faccini et al 2015). However, recent studies observed that the addition of NH 4 -enriched ZT caused high immediate NO 3 − levels in the substrate and relatively high gaseous N losses, indicating that probably part of this N was immediately available to soil microbial biomass for nitrification (Ferretti et al 2017b(Ferretti et al , 2018. This immediate availability in the soil can reduce the effectiveness of NH 4 -enriched ZT as slow-release fertilizer.…”