Changes in hot water soil extracts brought about by nitrogen immobilization and mineralization processes during incubation of amended soils

Summary During incubation of an acid cambisol and an alkaline fluvisol, amended with glucose and nitrate, hot water soil extracts were analysed for N content, ultraviolet absorption, and fluorescence. Humic substances in the hot water extracts and in a neutral sodium pyrophosphate extract were fractionated on polyvinylpyrrolidone and measured spectroscopically. Changes in the hot water and pyrophosphate extract compositions were related to changes in microbial biomass, as estimated by substrate-induced respiration, and the hexosamine content of soil hydrolysates. During the incubation, the microbial population in each type of soil developed quite differently, according to the soil pH. Microbial growth and death in the alkaline soil sample induced a maximum of hot-water-extractable ultraviolet-absorptive non-fluorescent substances. The fluorescence of the hot water soil extract increased steadily with incubation time even after the microbial activity was reduced. A similar increase in fluorescence, in accord with the ultraviolet absorption, was found during incubation of the acid soil samples. After 95 days of incubation, the hot-water-extractable fluorescent and ultraviolet-absorptive substances were reduced. N immobilization induced an increase, and N mineralization a decrease, in dissolved organic N. The relative increase in humic substances in the hot water soil extract was much higher than in the pyrophosphate extract. Therefore, humic material, produced by microbial growth and death, is obviously extractable with hot water.