Impact of the addition of different plant residues on nitrogen mineralization–immobilization turnover and carbon content of a soil incubated under laboratory conditions

Abstract

Abstract. Application of plant residues as soil amendment may represent a valuable recycling strategy that affects carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling in soil-plant systems. The amount and rate of nutrient release from plant residues depend on their quality characteristics and biochemical composition. A laboratory incubation experiment was conducted for 120 days under controlled conditions (25 • C and 58 % waterfilled pore space) to quantify initial biochemical composition and N mineralization of leguminous and non-leguminous plant residues, i.e., the roots, shoots and leaves of Glycine max, Trifolium repens, Zea mays, Populus euramericana, Robinia pseudoacacia and Elaeagnus umbellata, incorporated into the soil at the rate of 200 mg residue N kg −1 soil. The diverse plant residues showed a wide variation in total N, C, lignin, polyphenols and C / N ratio with higher polyphenol content in the leaves and higher lignin content in the roots. The shoot of Glycine max and the shoot and root of Trifolium repens displayed continuous mineralization by releasing a maximum of 109.8, 74.8 and 72.5 mg N kg −1 and representing a 55, 37 and 36 % recovery of N that had been released from these added resources. The roots of Glycine max and Zea mays and the shoot of Zea mays showed continuous negative values throughout the incubation. After an initial immobilization, leaves of Populus euramericana, Robinia pseudoacacia and Elaeagnus umbellata exhibited net mineralization by releasing a maximum of 31.8, 63.1 and 65.1 mg N kg −1 , respectively, and representing a 16, 32 and 33 % N recovery, respectively. Nitrogen mineralization from all the treatments was positively correlated with the initial residue N contents (r = 0.89; p ≤ 0.01) and negatively correlated with lignin content (r = −0.84; p ≤ 0.01), C / N ratio (r = −0.69; p ≤ 0.05), lignin / N ratio (r = −0.68; p ≤ 0.05), polyphenol / N ratio (r = −0.73; p ≤ 0.05) and (lignin + polyphenol) : N ratio (r = −0.70; p ≤ 0.05) indicating a significant role of residue chemical composition and quality in regulating N transformations and cycling in soil. The present study indicates that incorporation of plant residues strongly modifies the mineralizationimmobilization turnover (MIT) of soil that can be taken into account to develop synchronization between net N mineralization and crop demand in order to maximize N delivery and minimize N losses.

Assessment and Monitoring of Soil Degradation during Land Use Change Using Multivariate Analysis

“…For other variables, such as DS, BD and sand, the origin varies between them depending on specific human activities that are locally relevant. For instance, the increase in the BD content in the agricultural and urban soils comes from long‐term or intense short‐term anthropic activity connected with the activities of humans, livestock, and machines, such as building in urban areas, farming in cultivated fields, and over‐grazing in pasture lands (Khaledian et al, ; Kaleeem Abbasi et al, ). This clustering was confirmed by PCA, which can help determine the most important factors contributing to soil quality in different land uses (Yang et al, ; Choudhury et al, ; Costantini et al, ).…”

Cooperative effects of field traffic and organic matter treatments on some compaction-related soil properties

“…Although the specific effect of field traffic was not elucidated in these studies (Gelaw et al, 2015;Parras-Alcantra et al, 2015), the management systems are closely related to traffic density and soil physical attributes. The organic matter is relevant to soil behaviour, but it is also relevant at the atmospheric level and to the behaviour of the earth system since it can control the carbon cycle (Novara et al, 2013;Kaleeem Abbasi et al, 2015;Peng et al, 2015). Keesstra et al (2016) pointed out the significance of raising public and farmer awareness about key attributes of soil organic matter to perform and sustain ecosystem services.…”

The Potential for Waste‐Derived Materials to Form Soil Covers for the Restoration of Mine Tailings in Ireland

“…Organic amendment increased nutrient content (N, P and K) appreciably with compost addition displaying highest P and K status and increased salinity. Organic amendment can be a beneficial management strategy to promote plant establishment and improve soil‐quality characteristics in degraded soils and soil forming media (Courtney & Harrington, , Kaleeem Abbasi et al ., )…”