Short-term nitrogen transformation rates in riparian wetland soil determined with nitrogen-15

N transformation rates in soil from a riparian wetland that receives runoff from adjacent pastoral land were investigated in a short-term (250 min), anaerobic laboratory incubation (20°C). A joint ¹⁵N tracing-isotope dilution technique was employed that used paired incubations of labelled (99 atom % ¹⁵N) NO₃^–-unlabelled NH₄⁺ and unlabelled NO₃^–-labelled (99 atom % ¹⁵N) NH₄⁺ at three N input levels (0.4, 4 and 24 g N g^–1 soil). At each N input level NO₃^– and NH₄⁺ were added in equal proportions (0.2, 2 and 12 g N g^–1 soil). Soil and gas samples were analysed after 10, 70 and 250 min, and the fate of ¹⁵N and N transformation rates were determined for each time period; 0–10 min (phase 1), 10–70 min (phase 2) and 70–250 min (phase 3). N transformation rates for all processes except gross NH₄⁺ mineralisation were very high during phase 1. Processes favoured by aerobic conditions, NO₃^– immobilisation (0–17% NO₃^– removal, 0–8.2 g N g^–1 soil h^–1), autotrophic nitrification (~2% NH₄⁺ removal, 0.58–0.88 g N g^–1 soil h^–1) and heterotrophic nitrification (11–35 g N g^–1 soil h^–1) increased with increased N input while the anaerobic dissimilatory NO₃^– reduction to NH₄⁺ process (1–6% NO₃^– removal, 0.48–0.62 g N g^–1 soil h^–1) decreased, presumably due to the oxidising effect of higher NO₃^– inputs. Denitrification (8–78% NO₃^– removal, 3.8–9.6 g N g^–1 soil h^–1) exhibited no clear trend related to N input levels. NH₄⁺ immobilisation (39–72% NH₄⁺ removal, 15–19 g N g^–1 soil h^–1) was higher than NO₃^– immobilisation. Gross NH₄⁺ mineralisation (0.27–0.80 g N g^–1 soil h^–1) was the only process not detected in phase 1 and one of few processes measurable in phases 2 or 3.