定期淹水强碱性盐渍土中14C标记葡萄糖和NH4+的动态

Flooding an extremely alkaline（pH 10.6） saline soil of the former Lake Texcoco to reduce salinity will affect the soil carbon（C）and nitrogen（N） dynamics.A laboratory incubation experiment was done to investigate how decreasing soil salt content affected dynamics of C and N in an extremely alkaline saline soil.Sieved soil with electrical conductivity（EC） of 59.2 dS m^-1 was packed in columns,and then flooded with tap water,drained freely and conditioned aerobically at 50%water holding capacity for a month.This process of flooding-drainage-conditioning was repeated eight times.The original soil and the soil that had undergone one,two,four and eight flooding-drainage-conditioning cycles were amended with 1000 mg glucose-¹⁴C kg^-1 soil and 200 mg NH₄⁺-N kg^-1soil,and then incubated for 28 d.The CO₂ emissions,soil microbial biomass,and soil ammonium（NE₄⁺）,nitrite（NO₂^-） and nitrate（NO₃^-） were monitored in the aerobic incubation of 28 d.The soil EC decreased from 59.2 to 1.0 dS m_¹ after eight floodings,and soil pH decreased from 10.6 to 9.6.Of the added ¹⁴C-labelled glucose,only 8%was mineralized in the original soil,while 24%in the soil flooded eight times during the 28-d incubation.The priming effect was on average 278 mg C kg^-1 soil after the 28-d incubation.Soil microbial biomass C(mean 66 mg C kg^-1 soil) did not change with flooding times in the unamended soil,and increased 1.4 times in the glucose-NH₄⁺-amended soil.Ammonium immobilization and NO₂^- concentration in the aerobically incubated soil decreased with increasing flooding times,while NO₃^- concentration increased.It was found that flooding the Texcoco soil decreased the EC sharply,increased mineralization of glucose,stimulated nitrification,and reduced immobilization of inorganic N,but did not affect soil microbial biomass C.     

Turnover of microbial tissue in soil under field conditions

The microbial population of a Brown Chernozemic soil was labelled in situ by adding ¹⁴C-glucose and ¹⁵NH₄¹⁵NO₃ to the plow layer. The loss of ¹⁴C, nitrogen immobilization-mineralization reactions, bacterial numbers (plate count, direct count) and fungal hyphal lengths were determined periodically throughout the growing period in amended and unamended microplots and in the surrounding field soil. After 5 days, 90 per cent of the labelled N occurred in the organic form with little subsequent mineralization. Of the labelled C added, 63, 56 and 39 per cent, remained in the soil after 3, 14 and 104 days, respectively.The ratio of fungal C to bacterial C increased as soil moisture decreased. Viable (plate count) and total numbers of bacteria in samples from unamended plots and field soil were significantly correlated with each other and with soil moisture. Fungal hyphal lengths from amended soil were also significantly related to moisture but the rate of loss of ¹⁴C and mineralization of ¹⁵N were not. The synthesized microbial material (tissue and metabolites) exhibited a high degree of stability throughout the study. The half-life of labelled C remaining in the soil after 30 days was calculated to be 6 months compared to only 4 days for the added glucose C. The amount of energy used for maintenance by the soil population under field conditions was calculated from measurements of biomass C, respired labelled C and respired soil C.     

Simulating the dynamics of glucose and NH4+ in alkaline saline soils of the former Lake Texcoco with the Detran model

The turnover of organic matter determines the availability of plant nutrients in unfertilized soils, and this applies particularly to the alkaline saline soil of the former Lake Texcoco in Mexico. We investigated the effects of alkalinity and salinity on dynamics of organic material and inorganic N added to the soil. Glucose labelled with ¹⁴C was added to soil of the former Lake Texcoco drained for different lengths of time, and dynamics of ¹⁴C, C and N were investigated with the Detran model. Soil was sampled from an undrained plot and from three drained for 1, 5 and 8 years, amended with 1000 mg ¹⁴C‐labelled glucose kg^?1 and 200 mg NH₄⁺‐N kg^?1, and incubated aerobically. Production of ¹⁴CO₂ and CO₂, dynamics of NH₄⁺, NO₂^– and NO₃^–, and microbial biomass ¹⁴C, C and N were monitored and simulated with the Detran model. A third stable microbial biomass fraction had to be introduced in the model to simulate the dynamics of glucose, because > 90 mg ¹⁴C kg^?1 soil persisted in the soil microbial biomass after 97 days. The observed priming effect was mostly due to an increased decay of soil organic matter, but an increased turnover of the microbial biomass C contributed somewhat to the phenomenon. The dynamics of NH₄⁺ and NO₃^– in the NH₄⁺‐amended soil could not be simulated unless an immobilization of NH₄⁺ into the microbial biomass occurred in the first day of the incubation without an immediate incorporation of it into microbial organic material. The dynamics of C and a priming effect could be simulated satisfactorily, but the model had to be adjusted to simulate the dynamics of N when NH₄⁺ was added to alkaline saline soils.     

Decomposition of 14C glucose in two soils with different amounts of heavy metal contamination

A high metal-containing soil and a low metal-containing soil were supplied with ¹⁴C-labelled glucose at two rates, one to provide a constant glucose-to-soil ratio and the other a constant glucose-to-biomass ratio. The aim was to assess the effects of these different ratios on the microbial substrate utilisation efficiency. Glucose was added with or without N to investigate the extraction efficiency of the fumigation-extraction method shortly after substrate addition. The addition of glucose without N resulted in a proportionally larger increase in microbial biomass C than in microbial ninhydrin-reactive N (E_NIN) within the first few days after substrate addition, due to N deficiency. The biomass C-to-E_NIN ratio remained constant in all soil treatments after glucose addition in combination with N, indicating that the extraction efficiency of the fumigation-extraction method is not affected by the addition of glucose. Lower percentages of glucose added were incorporated into the microbial biomass with an increasing ratio of glucose-to-biomass. The ratio of respired to biomass incorporated ¹⁴C increased in all high metal-containing soil treatments markedly above that of the low metal-containing soil from day two of the incubation, markedly overriding the effects on the glucose C-to-biomass C ratio. Our results clearly demonstrated that more substrate was diverted by microorganisms into catabolic at the expense of anabolic processes in a high metal-containing soil.     

Decomposition de corps microbiens dans des sols fumiges au chloroforme: Effets du type de sol et de microorganisme

Five microbial species (Aspergillus flavus, Trichoderma viride, Streptomyces sp., Arthrobacter sp., Achromobacter liquefaciens) were cultivated in liquid media containing ¹⁴C-labelled glucose. The decomposition of these microorganisms was recorded in four different soils after chloroform fumigation by a technique related to that proposed by Jenkinson and Powlson, to determine the mineralization rate of microbial organic matter (K_c coefficient). Three treatments were used: untreated soil, fumigated soil alone and fumigated soil supplied with ¹⁴C-labelled cells. Total evolved CO₂ and ¹⁴CO₂ were measured after 7 and 14 days at 28°C.The labelled microorganisms enabled the calculation of mineralization rate K_c (K_c = mineralized microbial carbon/supplied microbial carbon). The extent of mineralization of labelled microbial carbon depended on the type of soil and on the microbial species. Statistical analysis of results at 7 days showed that 58% of the variance is taken in account by the soil effect and 32% by the microorganism effect. Between 35 and 49% of the supplied microbial C was mineralized in 7 days according to the soil type and the species of microorganism. Our results confirmed that the average value for K_c = 0.41 is acceptable, but K_c variability according to soil type must be considered.The priming effect on organic C and native microbial biomass mineralization, due to microbial carbon addition was obtained by comparison between the amount of non-labelled CO₂-C produced by fumigated soils with or without added labelled microorganisms: this priming effect was generally negligible.These results indicate that the major portion of the error of microbial biomass measurement comes from the K_c estimation.     

Metabolism of 14C uniformly labeled organic material by woodlice [Isopoda: Oniscoidea] and soil microorganisms

Uniformly labeled ¹⁴C-yeast was fed to woodlice and soil microorganisms together and independently. Mineralization was more rapid and extensive in treatments in which both groups were present. Two days after a single feed of the labeled yeast to freshly-collected or wood-reared animals, approximately 12 per cent of the ¹⁴C had been respired, 28 per cent excreted, 44 per cent assimilated, and 15 per cent unaccounted for. Yeast-reared animals were 6.6 per cent less efficient in assimilating the labeled food. After 26 days, maintenance consumption had resulted in dissipation of 65.8 per cent of the assimilated label, with almost 90 per cent of this amount eliminated as CO₂ and 10 per cent excreted. The elimination rate dropped from 6.8 per cent of the assimilated label per day to 0.6 per cent over the 1 month period following the single feeding of ¹⁴C. Three-quarters of the labeled faecal material excreted by the woodlice was mineralized by the soil microogranisms within 1 month; however, the rate of degradation of the faeces was significantly slower than was the rate of degradation of the labeled yeast. The ¹⁴C method appeared to give high recoveries of label and reproducible results.     

The influence of clay on the rate of decay of amino acid metabolites synthesized in soils during decomposition of cellulose

¹⁴C-labelled cellulose was added to seven different soils containing silt + clay (particles < 0.02 mm) in amounts which varied from 8 to 75 per cent. The cellulose was allowed to decompose, and the amounts of labelled C transformed into metabolites hydrolyzable into amino acids were determined. The amounts of labelled amino acid C in the soils were proportional to their content of silt + clay. After 30 days of incubation labelled amino acid C remaining in the soil with the lowest content of silt + clay constituted 6 per cent of the carbon added in cellulose, as compared with 18 per cent in the soil with the highest content of silt + clay. These values had decreased to 5 and 13 per cent respectively after 2 years of incubation. The order between the soils in the content of labelled amino acid C established during the first month of incubation, was thus roughly maintained throughout the period of incubation. The biological half-life of the labelled C in amino acids varied in the seven soils during the last year of incubation from 3 to 8 years. The variation was, however, not related to the amount of silt + clay.n the soils had been incubated with the labelled material for 2 years, samples of the soils were exposed to “stress” treatments: air drying-rewetting; increased biological activity caused by addition of glucose, and exposure to chloroform vapour. The treatments resulted in an evolution of labelled C in CO, which was 5–10 times larger than the evolution from untreated samples. The increase in the CO₂ evolution caused by the treatments in the different soils was, however, not related to the amount of silt + clay, and a high content of this material did not protect organic material against the effect of the treatments.is concluded that the silt + clay fraction ensures stabilization of amino acid metabolites produced during the period of intense biological activity that follows the addition of decomposable, energy rich material to the soil. The amount of amino acid metabolites stabilized increased with increasing concentration of silt + clay, but the rate of decay of the amino acid material during later stages was largely independent of the concentration of silt + clay.     

外加碳、氮对土壤氮矿化、固定与激发效应的影响

本文利用14C和15N对中国生黄绵土(坡地黄绵土)、菜园黄绵土和瑞典耕作草甸土的土壤氮矿化、固定与激发效应进行了研究。结果表明,外加碳、氮能促进土壤氮的矿化、固定与激发效应;促进作用的大小次序为外加NH4-15N大于外加NO3-15N,外加葡萄糖+NH4-15N大于外加葡萄糖+NO3-15N,外加麦秸+NH4-15N大于外加麦秸+NO3-15N,外加葡萄糖+NH4-15大于外加麦秸+NH4-15,外加葡萄糖+NO3-15N大于外加麦秸+NO3-15N;低肥力土壤高于高肥力土壤。在本文中提出了土壤净矿化氮的激发效应、土壤生物固定氮激发效应和土壤总矿化氮的总激发效应的概念,认为土壤氮的总激发效应更能反映土壤氮激发效应的实质。     

Priming effects of sugars,amino acids,organic acids and catechol on the mineralization of lignin and peat

The ¹⁴C‐labeled substrates glucose, fructose, alanine, glycine, oxalic acid, acetic acid, and catechol were incubated at 20 °C in a model system that consisted of sand mixed with lignin or peat (3 % C_org). Each substrate was added at either 80 or 400 μg C (g sand)^—1. During 26 days of incubation with an inoculum extracted from forest soil, the amount of CO₂ evolved was measured hourly. The amount of ¹⁴CO₂ was determined after 4, 6, 12, 19, and 26 days. After 26 days of incubation, each substrate showed priming effects, but not in all examined treatments. Most substrates stimulated the degradation of the model substances (positive priming effects). Negative priming effects only were found in the lignin system with oxalic acid and catechol addition at both concentrations. The strongest positive priming occurred in the peat system with the oxalic acid addition of 80 μg C g^—1 where 1.8 % of the peat were mineralized after 26 days, compared to 0.7 % in the control. The addition of 400 μg alanine‐C g^—1 caused the strongest increase in lignin mineralization, amounting to 3.9 % compared to 2.8 % in the control. During the incubation the extent of priming changed with time. Most substrates caused the strongest effects during the first 4 to 10 days of incubation. The extent of priming depended on substrate type, substrate concentration, and organic model substance. Possibly this is due to the activation of different microorganisms.     

The initial rate of C substrate utilization and longer-term soil C storage

The initial reaction of microbial transformation and turnover of soil carbon inputs may influence the magnitude of longer-term net soil C storage. The objective of this study was to test the merit of the hypothesis that the more rapid substrates are initially utilized, the longer the residual products remain in the soil. We used simple model C compounds to determine their decomposition rates and persistence over time. Pure ¹⁴C compounds of glucose, acetate, arginine, oxalate, phenylalanine, and urea were incubated in soil for 125 days at 24°C. Total respired CO₂ and ¹⁴CO₂ was quantitatively measured every day for 15 days and residual soil ¹⁴C after 125 days. The percent ¹⁴C remaining in the soil after 125 days of incubation was positively and significantly correlated with the percent substrate utilized in the first day of incubation. The ¹⁴C in the microbial biomass ranged from 4–15% after 15 days and declined through day 125, contributing significantly to the ¹⁴C that evolved over the longer time period. Priming of ¹²C soil organic matter (SOM) was negative at day 3 but became positive, reaching a maximum on day 12; the total increase in soil C from added substrates was greater than the primed C. The primed C came from ¹²C SOM rather than the microbial biomass. This data supports the concept that the more rapidly a substrate is initially mineralized, the more persistent it will be in the soil over time.     

Influence of soil phosphorus status and nitrogen addition on carbon mineralization from 14C-labelled glucose in pasture soils

 This study examines the effect of soil P status and N addition on the decomposition of ¹⁴C-labelled glucose to assess the consequences of reduced fertilizer inputs on the functioning of pastoral systems. A contrast in soil P fertility was obtained by selecting two hill pasture soils with different fertilizer history. At the two selected sites, representing low (LF) and high (HF) fertility status, total P concentrations were 640 and 820 mg kg^–1 and annual pasture production was 4,868 and 14,120 kg DM ha^–1 respectively. Soils were amended with ¹⁴C-labelled glucose (2,076 mg C kg^–1 soil), with and without the addition of N (207 mg kg^–1 soil), and incubated for 168 days. During incubation, the amounts of ¹⁴CO₂ respired, microbial biomass C and ¹⁴C, microbial biomass P, extractable inorganic P (P_i) and net N mineralization were determined periodically. Carbon turnover was greatly influenced by nutrient P availability. The amount of glucose-derived ¹⁴CO₂ production was high (72%) in the HF and low (67%) in the LF soil, as were microbial biomass C and P concentrations. The ¹⁴C that remained in the microbial biomass at the end of the 6-month incubation was higher in the LF soil (15%) than in the HF soil (11%). Fluctuations in P_i in the LF soil during incubation were small compared with those in HF soil, suggesting that P was cycling through microbial biomass. The concentrations of P_i were significantly greater in the HF samples throughout the incubation than in the LF samples. Net N mineralization and nitrification rates were also low in the LF soils, indicating a slow turnover of microorganisms under limited nutrient supply. Addition of N had little effect on biomass ¹⁴C and glucose utilization. This suggests that, at limiting P fertility, C turnover is retarded because microbial biomass becomes less efficient in the utilization of substrates. Received: 18 October 1999     

Determination of kC and kNin situ for calibration of the chloroform fumigation-incubation method

¹⁴C-labelled glucose and ¹⁵N-labelled KNO₃ were added to soil and the microbial biomass during 42 days' incubation was estimated using the chloroform fumigation-incubation method (CFIM). By day 1, most of the glucose (1577 μgCg^?1 soil) was metabolized and 110 μg NO^?₃-Ng^?1 soil were immobilized. In situ values for the proportions of biomass C (k_C) and biomass N (k_N) mineralized during the 10 days after CHCl₃ fumigation were determined on the basis that the immobilized labelled C and N remaining in the soil at this time were present as living microbial cells and their associated metabolites. The tracer data indicated that biomass C could be calculated by applying a k_c value of 0.41 to the CO₂-C evolved from the fumigated sample without subtraction of an unfumigated “control”. Biomass N was estimated from the net NH₄^?-N accumulation during the fumigation-incubation. The problem of reimmobilization of NH⁺₄-N where organisms of wide C:N ratio occur was overcome by adjusting the value of k_N according to the ratio of CO₂-C evolved: net NH₄⁺-N accumulated during the fumigation-incubation (C_F:N_F).A C_F:N_F ratio of 6:1 resulted in a k_N of 0.30 whereas a ratio of 13:1 indicated a k_N of 0.20.     

Urea fertilisation affected soil organic matter dynamics and microbial community structure in pasture soils of Southern Ecuador

In the mountain rainforest region of the South Ecuadorian Andes natural forests have often been converted to pastures by slash-and-burn practice. With advanced pasture age the pasture grasses are increasingly replaced by the tropical bracken leading to the abandonment of the sites. To improve pasture productivity a fertilisation experiment with urea was established. The effects of urea on soil organic matter (SOM) mineralisation and microbial community structure in top soil (0–5 cm depth) of an active and abandoned pasture site have been investigated in laboratory incubation experiments. Either ¹⁴C- or ¹⁵N-labelled urea (74 mg urea-N kg⁻¹ dw soil) was added to track the fate of ¹⁴C into CO₂ or microbial biomass and that of ¹⁵N into the KCl-extractable NH₄-N or NO₃-N or microbial biomass pool. The soil microbial community structure was assessed using phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA). In a second experiment two levels of ¹⁴C-labelled urea (74 and 110 mg urea-N kg⁻¹ dw soil) were added to soil from 5 to 10 cm depth of the respective sites. Urea fertilisation accelerated the mineralisation of SOC directly after addition up to 17% compared to the non-fertilised control after 14 days of incubation. The larger the amount of N potentially available per unit of microbial biomass N the larger was the positive priming effect. Since in average 80% of the urea-C had been mineralised already 1 day after amendment, the priming effect was strong enough to cause a net loss of soil C. Although the structure of the microbial community was significantly different between sites, urea fertilisation induced the same alteration in microbial community composition: towards a relative lower abundance of PLFA marker characteristic of Gram-positive bacteria and a higher one of those typical of Gram-negative bacteria and fungi. This change was positively correlated with the increase in NH₄, NO₃ and DON availability. In addition to the activation of different microbial groups the abolishment of energy limitation of the microbes seemed to be an important mechanism for the enhanced mineralisation of SOM.     

Effect of barley plants on the decomposition of 14C-labelled soil organic matter

The effect of barley plants on the rate of decomposition of soil organic matter over a 6-week period was studied using soil that had been previously labelled by incubation with ¹⁴C-labelled ryegrass for 1 year. The plants reduced the loss of ¹⁴CO₂, from soil by 70 per cent over 42 days. About half of the reduction was accounted for by the uptake of labelled C by the plant roots, very little ¹⁴C label being associated with the shoot. Chemical fractionation of the root showed that the ¹⁴C was chemically incorporated into cell wall materials such as cellulose and holocellulose. The reduction in organic matter decomposition in the presence of plants has been explained by earlier workers in terms ofa reduction in microbial activity as a result of a soil moisture deficit caused by plant transpiration. This explanation does not account for all the reduction in decomposition noted in the present experiments. Control soil (without a plant, but amended with glucose or yeast extract to simulate the effect of root exudates) showed a small positive priming effect, the release of ¹⁴CO₂, being increased. Thus the mechanism by which plants conserve organic matter is complex and cannot be explained merely by analogy to an increased level of nutrients available for microbial metabolism.     

Umsetzung 14C-markierter Pflanzeninhaltsstoffe im Boden in Gegenwart von 15N-Ammonium

Turnover of ¹⁴C-labelled plant components and ¹⁵N-ammonium in soil The turnover of ¹⁴C-labelled glucose, cellulose, wheat straw, phenols or of lignin in soil was investigated in the presence of (¹⁵NH₄)₂SO₄. The plant components were more or less rapidly degraded to ¹⁴CO₂ and the amended nitrogen source became organically linked but was also remineralized to a variable extend. Also variable was the incorporation of the ¹⁴C or ¹⁵N into humified residues or microbial metabolites. During the turnover of carbohydrates and straw a rapid increase of ¹⁴C and ¹⁵N in amino-acids or unidentified components of soil hydrolysates occurred which was followed by a decrease. The turnover of phenols was mostly similar to that of carbohydrates but compared to their mineralization rates, a smaller incorporation occurred into the easily hydrolyzable soil fractions. Although lignin was considerably mineralized to CO₂, the incorporation of the carbon remaining in soil into hydrolyzable components especially in amino-acids was, however, very small. A somewhat higher amount became incorporated into unidentified components of hydrolysates, but the bulk of the lignin carbon remained in the non-hydrolizable residue.     

Mineralization of bacteria and fungi in chloroform-fumigated soils

It has been suggested by others that the size of the flush of mineralization caused by CHC1₃ fumigation can be used to estimate the amount of microbial biomass in soils. Calculation of biomass from the flush requires that the proportion of CHCl₃-killed cell C mineralized be known. To determine this proportion, 15 species of [¹⁴C]labelled fungi and 12 species of [¹⁴C]labelled bacteria were added to four types of soil and these were fumigated for 24 h with CHC1₃, reinoculated with unfumigated soil, and incubated at 22°C for 10 days. The average percentage mineralization of the fungi was 43.7 ± 5.3, while the average for the bacteria was 33.3 ± 9.9. Using a 1:3 ratio for distribution of total biomass between the bacterial and fungal populations, respectively, it was calculated that the average mineralization of both types of cells was 41.1%. In experiments conducted to determine if CHC1₃ vapour alters stabilized microbial metabolites or dead microbial cells in a manner which makes them more susceptible to degradation, it was found that both fumigated and unfumigated dead fungal materials mineralized to the same extent in soil during 10 days of incubation.     

Responses of biotic and abiotic effects on conservation and supply of fertilizer N to inhibitors and glucose inputs

Fertilizer N can be conserved through immobilization by microorganisms (biotic process) and fixation by soil clay minerals (abiotic process), and then subsequently remineralized and released. These processes are significantly affected by inhibitors, and available C application. In this study, a 96-day incubation experiment was conducted to assess the effects of microbial immobilization and ammonium fixation on conservation and supply of urea-N with the nitrification inhibitor (DMPP: 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate), urease inhibitor (NBPT: N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide), and glucose additions. The results showed that urea-derived soil microbial biomass nitrogen (SMBN) consistently increased with DMPP input, whereas NBPT increased urea-derived SMBN in the absence of glucose but decreased it in the presence of glucose. Both inhibitors enhanced the effects of fixed NH₄⁺ on conservation and supply of urea-N in all cases, and retarded the release of fixed NH₄⁺. Glucose addition intensified the competition for NH₄⁺ between microbial immobilization and mineral fixation, as well as reduced the availability of urea-N and native soil N, resulting in a negative added N interaction at the initial incubation stage. From 12 to 96 days, the release of fixed NH₄⁺ was 2.6-fold greater than the mineralization of organic N (including SMBN and non-microbial organic N) in the non-glucose treatments, whereas the latter was 2.7-fold greater than the former in the glucose treatments. Taken together, our study indicates both microbial immobilization and mineral fixation are important processes by which N is stabilized in soil. Clarification of fertilizer N transformation induced by these biotic and abiotic processes can provide helpful implications for quantifying N cycle and optimizing agricultural nutrient management.     

Biodegradation of an oily waste as influenced by nitrogen forms and sources

Biodegradation rates of oily waste in soil can be limited by mineral nutrients, particularly N and P. A laboratory incubation experiment was carried out to investigate the influence of N forms, nitrate (NO^? ₃-N) vs ammonium nitrogen (NH⁺ ₄-N), and sources, i.e., the conjugate cations/anions, on C mineralization rate (CMR) was determined daily by measuring the CO₂ evolved using gas chromatography. The CMR and the cumulative C mineralized (CCM) varied with the form and/or the source of N applied. The greatest enhancement in CMR occurred in the NO^? ₃-treatments in which the source conjugate cation was Ca⁺². The addition of P fertilizer further enhanced C mineralization rates irrespective of the form and/or the source of N added. The results show that up to 45% of the added oily waste mineralized as CO₂-C in 28 d. The residual P and N (NO^? ₃-N plus NH⁺ ₄-N) data showed that approximately 90% of the added P and N were utilized for oil decomposition. The amount of residual NO^? ₃-N appeared to have an inverse relationship with CCM. The NO^? ₃-N utilization occurred at the expense of NH⁺ ₄-N and this was particularly high in the treatments which received P.     

Microbial response to the addition of glucose in low-fertility soils

Addition of soluble organic substrates to soil has been shown to either increase or restrict the rate of microbial CO₂–C evolution. This has been attributed to a priming effect resulting from accelerated or decreased turnover of the soil organic matter including the soil microflora. We investigated microbial responses to small glucose-C additions (10–50 μg C g¹ soil) in arable soils either amended or not with cellulose. An immediate CO₂–C release between 0 and 69 h (equivalent to 59% of glucose-C applied) was measured. However, only half of the CO₂–C respired could be attributed to the utilisation of glucose-C substrate, based on the percentage of ¹⁴C–CO₂ evolved after the addition of a ¹⁴C-labelled glucose tracer. Thus, although no evidence of an immediate release of ‘extra’ C above the rate applied as glucose-C was observed, the pattern of decomposition for ¹⁴C-glucose suggested utilisation of an alternate C source. Based on this, a positive priming effect (1.5 to 4.3 times the amount CO₂–C evolved that was attributed to glucose-C decomposition) was observed for at least 170 h in non-cellulose-amended soil and 612 h in cellulose-amended soil. Two further phases of microbial activity in cellulose-amended soils were attributed to either activation of different microbial populations or end-product inhibition of cellulase activity after glucose addition. During these subsequent phases, a negative priming effect of between 0.1 and 1.5 times was observed. Findings indicate that the response of the microbial community to small additions of soluble organic C substrate is not consistent and support the premise that microbial response varies in a yet to be predicted manner between soil type and ecosystems. We hypothesise that this is due to differences in the microbial community structure activated by the addition of organic C and the timing of soluble organic substrate addition with respect to the current dissolved organic C status of the soil.     

Carbon and nitrogen mineralization and ammonia volatilization from fresh,aerobically and anaerobically treated pig manure during incubation with soil

Summary We studied the decomposition of aerobically and anaerobically treated pig manure during a 2-month incubation with soil. The manure samples had not been in contact with straw or with animal urine. The aerobically decomposed manure proved to be the most stable (23% C mineralization), followed by fresh (75%) and anaerobically treated manure (105%, priming effect). The course of mineralization fitted combined first- and zeroorder kinetics. In the anaerobically treated manure, 76% of NH ₄ ⁺ -N was immobilized during the initial incubation phase, followed by a slow linear mineralization. In the aerobically treated manure there was a slow linear mineralization after 5 days, and in the fresh material, a slightly faster linear mineralization after 6 days. Total mineralized N was very similar after 2 months (12%) in all treatments. Total NH₃ losses were highest from the anaerobically treated manure (14%), reflecting a higher NH ₄ ⁺ content with N mineralization following first-order kinetics. Relating NH₃ losses to the initial NH ₄ ⁺ content showed that all NH₃ in the aerobically treated manure was volatilized, whereas only 28% was volatilized from the fresh and the anaerobically treated manure. Present address: Department of Soil Science, Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden Herts, AL5 2JQ, UK