MEASUREMENT OF LOSSES FROM FERTILIZER NITROGEN DURING INCUBATION IN ACID SANDY SOILS AND DURING SUBSEQUENT GROWTH OF RYEGRASS, USING 15N-LABELLED FERTILIZERS

Ammonium sulphate and calcium nitrate both containing excess ¹⁵N were applied to four acid sandy soils; two were from old arable fields and two from grassland, selected so that one of each pair was about pH 5 and the other about pH 6 (in water). The soils were incubated for 6 weeks at 21°C in large glazed earthenware pots, one set with the nitrification inhibitor 2-chloro-6-(trichloromethyl)-pyridine added and another without inhibitor. Ammonium and nitrate N were determined at intervals, and the total-N at the start and after 6 weeks. The atom per cent ¹⁵N in the mineral-N extracted from soils treated with ammonium sulphate was determined after 0, 3, and 6 weeks, and in the total-N of all the soils given N-fertilizer at 0 and 6 weeks. Much added N was immobilized at first, but some was re-mineralized during the second half of the incubation. Mineral-N extracted from soils treated with ammonium sulphate contained less ¹⁵N than the fertilizer added, showing that part of the apparent re-mineralization during the second half was from unlabelled soil organic matter. After incubating for 6 weeks less than 5 per cent of the N added as nitrate was lost but about 5 per cent of the labelled-N added as ammonium sulphate was lost from the two grassland soils. Adding the inhibitor prevented this loss. After incubating, the soil remaining in each jar was halved to provide duplicate pots and sown with ryegrass. A similar series of pots with the same treatments (but with unlabelled fertilizer) was also prepared from the soils that had been stored slightly moist and at 21°C; these were sown with ryegrass. All pots were harvested after 42 days and again after 70 days. More than 93 per cent of the labelled-N was recovered in plants and soil, except from the two grassland soils to which calcium nitrate was added. It is concluded that while a little nitrogen may be lost during nitrification in some of these soils, more nitrogen may be lost during the growth of grass, when nitrate is present in relatively large amounts. The nitrification inhibitor decreased yields of grass at the first cutting on grassland soils treated with ammonium, but increased them on soil treated with nitrate, suggesting that changing the proportions of nitrate to ammonium by adding the inhibitor alters the growth rate and yield of grass.