Elsevier

Advances in Agronomy

Volume 57, 1996, Pages 187-235
Advances in Agronomy

Nitrogen Mineralization in Temperate Agricultural Soils: Processes and Measurement

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2113(08)60925-6Get rights and content

Publisher Summary

Soils form a major repository of nitrogen (N) within both natural and agricultural terrestrial ecosystems, containing, on a global basis, an estimated 2.4 x 1011 tons of N. The soil receives N inputs through fertilizer additions and from the atmosphere in precipitation and dry deposition or via biological fixation; inputs are also made in plant and animal residues. N is removed in the harvested crop and is lost by leaching and surface run-off of soluble forms, by gaseous transfer as N gas and N oxides (during nitrification and denitrification processes), and by ammonia volatilization. In some circumstances, erosion may also be important. In addition to these interactions with the total ecosystem, internal cycles also operate within the soil, so that even if gains and losses are in balance, then N still continues to cycle in the soil. This chapter describes the current understanding of the conceptual basis of the processes involved in mineralization, relationships among the processes and other factors, and how their effects can be determined practically. The aim is to present this in a way that is relevant to current and future agricultural development and to environmental issues.

References (214)

  • T.H. Flowers et al.

    Immobilization and mineralization of nitrogen in soils incubated with pig slurry or ammonium sulphate

    Soil Biol. Biochem.

    (1983)
  • R.F. Grant et al.

    Simulation of carbon and nitrogen transformations in soil: Microbial biomass and metabolic products

    Soil Biol. Biochem.

    (1993)
  • E.G. Gregorich et al.

    Turnover of carbon through the microbial biomass in soils with different textures

    Soil Biol. Biochem.

    (1991)
  • A. Hadas et al.

    Assimilation of nitrogen by the soil microbial population: NH4 versus organic N

    Soil Biol. Biochem.

    (1992)
  • J. Hassink

    Relationship between the amount and activity of the microbial biomass in Dutch grassland soils: Comparison of the fumigation-incubation method and the substrate-induced respiration method

    Soil Biol. Biochem.

    (1993)
  • J. Hassink

    Effects of soil texture and grassland management on soil organic C and N and rates of C and N mineralization

    Soil Biol. Biochem.

    (1994)
  • J. Hassink et al.

    Relationships between habitable pore space, soil biota and mineralization rates in grassland soils

    Soil Biol. Biochem.

    (1993)
  • T.H.E. Heaton

    Isotopic studies of nitrogen pollution in the hydrosphere and the atmosphere: A review

    Chem. Geol.

    (1986)
  • M.A. Adams et al.

    Nutrient cycling and nitrogen mineralization in eucalypt forests of south-eastern Australia. II. Indices of nitrogen mineralization

    Plant Soil

    (1986)
  • T.M. Addiscott

    Kinetics and temperature relationships of mineralization and nitrification in Rothamsted soils with differing histories

    J. Soil Sci.

    (1983)
  • B.J.R. Alves et al.

    In situ estimation of soil nitrogen mineralization

  • Anderson and Domsch
  • J.M. Anderson

    The role of soil fauna in agricultural systems

  • T. Appel et al.

    Importance of organic nitrogen fractions in sandy soils, obtained by electro-ultrafiltration or CaCl2 extraction for nitrogen mineralization and nitrogen uptake of rape

    Biol. Fertil. Soils

    (1990)
  • F. Azam et al.

    Microbial biomass and mineralization-immobilization of nitrogen in some agricultural soils

    Biol. Fertil. Soils

    (1986)
  • J. Ballesdent et al.

    Effect of tillage on soil organic carbon mineralization estimated from 13C abundance in maize fields

    J. Soil Sci.

    (1990)
  • P. Barak et al.

    Mineralization of amino acids and evidence of direct assimilation of organic nitrogen

    Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J.

    (1990)
  • D. Barraclough

    The use of mean pool abundances to interpret 15N tracer experiments I. Theory

    Plant Soil

    (1991)
  • D. Barraclough et al.

    The estimation of mineralization, immobilization and nitrification in nitrogen-15 field experiments using computer simulation

    J. Soil Sci.

    (1987)
  • E.G. Beauchamp

    Availability of nitrogen from three manures to corn in the field

    Canad. J. Soil Sci.

    (1986)
  • E.G. Beauchamp et al.

    Nitrogen mineralization kinetics with different soil pretreatments and cropping histories

    Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J.

    (1986)
  • P. Bemal et al.

    Carbon and nitrogen mineralization and ammonia volatilization from fresh, anaerobically treated pig manure during incubation with soil

    Biol. Fertil. Soils

    (1992)
  • S. Bjarnason

    Immobilization and remineralization of ammonium and nitrate after addition of different energy sources to soil

    Plant Soil

    (1987)
  • P. Blantern

    Factors affecting nitrogen transformations in grazed grassland soils with specific reference to the effects of artificial land drainage and N fertilizer

    (1991)
  • T.A. Bonde et al.

    Nitrogen mineralization kinetics in soil during long-term aerobic laboratory incubations: A case study

    J. Environ. Qual.

    (1988)
  • L.A. Bouwman et al.

    Short-term and long-term effects of bacteriavorous nematodes and nematophagus fungi on carbon and nitrogen mineralization in microcosms

    Biol. Fertil. Soils

    (1994)
  • N.J. Bradbury et al.

    Modelling the fate of nitrogen in crop and soil in the years following the application of 15N-labelled fertilizer to winter wheat

    J. Agric. Sci.

    (1993)
  • R.G.V. Bramley et al.

    An analysis of variability in the activity of nitrifiers in a soil under pasture. I. Spatially dependent variability and optimum sampling strategy

    Aust. J. Soil Res.

    (1991)
  • A.W. Bristow et al.

    Effects of grazing and nitrogen fertilizer on the soil microbial biomass under permanent pasture

    J. Sci. Food Agric.

    (1991)
  • F.E. Broadbent

    Empirical modelling of soil nitrogen mineralization

    Soil Sci.

    (1986)
  • P.C. Brookes et al.

    The microbial biomass in soil

  • M.L. Cabrera

    Modelling the flush of nitrogen mineralization caused by drying out and rewetting soils

    Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J.

    (1993)
  • M.L. Cabrera et al.

    Evaluation of a method to predict nitrogen mineralized from soil organic matter under field conditions

    Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J.

    (1988)
  • C.A. Campbell et al.

    Predicting net nitrogen mineralization over a growing season: Model verification

    Canad. J. Soil Sci.

    (1988)
  • K.G. Cassman et al.

    Nitrogen mineralization as affected by soil moisture, temperature and depth

    Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J.

    (1980)
  • J.Z. Castellanos et al.

    Mineralization of manure nitrogen-Correlation with laboratory indexes

    Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J.

    (1981)
  • Y.M. Chae et al.

    Mineralization of soils in soils amended with organic wastes

    J. Environ. Qual.

    (1986)
  • F.H. Chang et al.

    Influence of trace metals on some soil nitrogen transformations

    J. Environ. Qual.

    (1982)
  • R. Chaussod et al.

    Size and turnover of the microbial biomass in agricultural soils: Laboratory and field measurements

  • D.G. Christian et al.

    Nitrogen uptake by cover crops

    Aspects Appl. Biol.

    (1992)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text