Comparison of buried bag and PVC core methods for in situ measurement of nitrogen mineralization rates in an agricultural soil

Abstract

We compared estimates of soil nitrogen (N) mineralization rates using the buried bag and PVC core methods in an ongoing investigation of the effects of earthworms and N fertilizer sources on agroecosystem N dynamics. Over a seven‐month period, we paired monthly buried bag and PVC core soil incubations within research plots receiving one of three N treatments (inorganic, legume, or manure fertilizers) and with manipulated earthworm populations (reduced, ambient, or increased numbers). Soil moisture within both the buried bags and the PVC cores fluctuated in response to changes in the surrounding soil, violating assumptions of the buried bag method that soil moisture remains constant during incubation. For both methods, overall CV's for net ammonification, nitrification, and N mineralization rates were very high (104 ‐ 628%). Overall, results for the two methods were significantly correlated for net ammonification (r = 0.89), net nitrification (r = 0.58), and net N mineralization (r = 0.24). In general, the two methods yielded similar seasonal estimates of net N mineralization and nitrification. However, on one occasion in the plots with the inorganic N treatment, buried bag estimates of net N mineralization were significantly higher than the PVC core estimates (1.5 versus ‐0.4 mg N‐kg^‐1 soil‐d¹, respectively). Under some conditions, the two methods may lead to quite different interpretations of soil N mineralization processes.