Short- and long-term effects of ammonium on photodependent nitrogen fixation in wetland rice fields of Spain

Short- and long-term experiments were conducted in the rice fields of Valencia, Spain, to determine the ecological significance of ammonium on nitrogen fixation. A significant inhibition of nitrogenase activity by ammonium, at concentrations higher than 0.5mM, was observed after 8h of incubation in short-term experiments done with a bloom of the N₂-fixing cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. In a second set of short-term experiments for in situ assays of nitrogenase activity in the field, a significant correlation between nitrogenase activity and the number of N₂-fixing cyanobacteria in soil was found. No significant inhibition of nitrogenase activity by ammonium at concentrations up to 2mM was observed in these assays after 24h of incubation. This lack of inhibition was probably due to the rapid decrease in ammonium content in the flood water. Only 5% of the ammonium initially added remained in the water 24h later. In the long-term experiments, nitrogenase activity was assayed in plots fertilized with 0, 70 and 140kgNha^–1, over the cultivation cycle, for 5 years. A partial inhibition of nitrogenase activity by deep-placed N fertilizers was observed. Differences were only significant in 2 years. Mean results from 5 years only showed significant differences between plots fertilized with 0 and 140kgNha^–1. The partial inhibition of nitrogenase activity by ammonium increased over the cultivation cycle. Inhibition was only significant in September, at the end of the cultivation cycle. Received: 28 January 1996