Abstract
A greenhouse experiment was conducted to determine the influence of cropping variables on nitrogen dynamics in a soil amended with green manure. Surface soil from various long-term spring wheat rotations was amended with15N-labelled legume green manure (Lathyrus tingitanus) and subsequently cropped (canola [Brassica napus] and spring wheat [Triticum aestivum]) or incubated without a crop for 56 days in a greenhouse. Nitrogen mineralization from both the indigenous soil N and from green manure was suppressed in cropped soil. Net N mineralization in the uncropped and cropped treatments averaged 73 and 43 mg kg−1, respectively. This difference was attributed, in part, to enhanced biological immobilization in the rhizosphere. Previous cropping practices also had significant effect on N mineralization, largely by their influence on indigenous organic matter quality. These observations suggest that short-term N mineralization is favored by fallowing soil after green manure application whereas N retention in organic matter is favored by immediate cropping.
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Janzen, H.H., Radder, G.D. Nitrogen mineralization in a green manure-amended soil as influenced by cropping history and subsequent crop. Plant Soil 120, 125–131 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02370298
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02370298