Nitrogen mineralization from organic fertilizers and composts: Literature survey and model fitting

Abstract

Organic fertilizers and composts are valuable sources of nutrients. However, their nutrient availability is often not known and can be variable. The objective of the present study was to collect net nitrogen (N) turnover data from peer-reviewed articles and fit a model that simulates gross N mineralization and gross N immobilization to determine pool sizes and their rate constants of different common organic amendments. A total of 113 datasets were included in the study. The model predicted that 61 and 72.5% of total N in feather meal and guano, respectively, would be in the mineral form after 100 d under optimal conditions. Nitrogen availability from poultry manure and poultry manure compost was lower. On average, 16-17% of total N was present as mineral N in the materials, whereas at the end of the 100-d simulation, 39.6 and 32.7% of total N from an average poultry manure and its compost, respectively, were in the mineral form. Yard waste compost and vermicompost are stable materials, with <10% of the total N in an average material being in the mineral form at the end of the 100-d simulation. Model simulations revealed that changes in the assumed temperature sensitivity of N mineralization have a strong effect on N availability of readily available organic amendments during the first weeks after incorporation. The model performed well for guano and feather meal but was unsatisfactory for the other amendment groups. Model performance may have been hampered by different incubation protocols used in the studies included and variability in amendment properties not considered by the model. The results of this study allow estimating the release of N from a variety of organic fertilizers and composts and can be a valuable tool to improve N management of organic amendments in crop production.

Winter Wheat Performance Following One-time High Rates of Compost and Annual Cover Crop Planting in Wheat-fallow Rotations

“…Cover crops alone in the preceding fallow also did not affect soil TC/ N in the wheat phases of all three growing seasons. The inability of the compost rates to affect soil TC and TN in the wheat phase of the first growing season confirms that compost mineralization and nutrient supply is slow as reported by [36] and may not make significant contributions to soil nutrients in the first year of application. This finding is especially true for colder regions (Fig.…”

Assessment of Inter- and Intraspecific P Efficiency in Forage Legumes as Affected by Recycling Fertiliser

“…In the field, compost In contrast to the other recycling products, compost contains relevant amounts of N. However, the higher N supply of compost did not lead to higher N concentrations in the legumes. This underlines the slow N release from compost [80] and makes compost a suitable fertiliser for legumes. Compost application resulted in increased P contents in the labile pool in the soil, but less so than TSP and struvite (Figure 5).…”

Effects of organic fertilizers on yield, soil physico-chemical property, soil microbial community diversity and structure of Brassica rapa var. Chinensis

“…This is because the nitrate and ammonium roots of compound fertilizers can be directly absorbed by the plants after fertilization, whereas organic fertilizers must first be mineralized into inorganic nutrients by soil microbiota before being absorbed and assimilated by plants ( Alizadeh et al, 2012 ). The supply of nitrogen from organic fertilizers depends on their rate of mineralization, but in the first season, soil temperatures are relatively low and the rate of mineralization of organic fertilizers is also low, resulting in inadequate nutrient supply ( Geisseler et al, 2021 ; Cannavo et al, 2022 ). Although the yield of Brassica rapa var.…”