Fate of fertilizer nitrogen.

Results are presented from a three year lysimeter investigation, employing single (¹⁵NH₄NO₃) and double (¹⁵NH₄¹⁵NO₃) labelled ammonium nitrate to study the uptake of soil and fertilizer nitrogen by cut ryegrass at 250, 500 and 900 kg N ha^?1 a^?1. Average annual recoveries of nitrogen were equivalent to 99,76 and 50% of the nitrogen added at 250, 500 and 900 kg N ha^?1, respectively. At 250 kg N ha^?1 the difference between the overall nitrogen recovery and the fertilizer recovery was almost entirely attributable to pool substitution resulting from mineralization/immobilization turnover (MIT). At 900 kg N ha^?1 both the low overall recovery of nitrogen and the low fertilizer recovery reflected the large excess of available nitrogen over crop requirements. No evidence of ‘priming’ was obtained. Analysis of the results from single and double labelled lysimeters using simultaneous equations indicated that at 250 kg N ha^?1,～70% of the nitrogen in the crop was derived from the ammonium pool. At 500 kg N ha^?1 this dropped to 64%, while at 900 kg N ha^?1 the figure was 59%. There was a suggestion that at the lower application rates, preferential uptake of ammonium was occurring but that as N supply exceeded crop requirements, nitrate was the major N source. Despite the preferential exploitation of the ammonium pool, at 250 and 500 kg N ha^?1 pool substitution resulting from MIT resulted in lower recoveries of fertilizer ammonium compared with fertilizer nitrate.