Journal
REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE CIENCIA DO SOLO
Volume 37, Issue 2, Pages 450-461Publisher
SOC BRASILEIRA DE CIENCIA DO SOLO
DOI: 10.1590/S0100-06832013000200016
Keywords
Saccharum spp.; net N mineralization; aerobic incubation; anaerobic incubation
Categories
Funding
- Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) [2009/04691-2]
- National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) [574982/2008-6]
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Considering nitrogen mineralization (N) of soil organic matter is a key aspect for the efficient management of N fertilizers in agricultural systems. Long-term aerobic incubation is the standard technique for calibrating the chemical extraction methods used to estimate the potentially mineralizable N in soil. However, the technique is laborious, expensive and time-consuming. In this context, the aims of this study were to determine the amount of soil mineralizable N in the 0-60 cm layer and to evaluate the use of short-term anaerobic incubation instead of long-term aerobic incubation for the estimation of net N mineralization rates in soils under sugarcane. Five soils from areas without previous N fertilization were used in the layers 0-20, 20-40 and 40-60 cm. Soil samples were aerobically incubated at 35 degrees C for 32 weeks or anaerobically incubated (waterlogged) at 40 degrees C for seven days to determine the net soil N mineralization. The sand, silt and clay contents were highly correlated with the indexes used for predicting mineralizable N. The 0-40 cm layer was the best sampling depth for the estimation of soil mineralizable N, while in the 40-60 cm layer net N mineralization was low in both incubation procedures. Anaerobic incubation provided reliable estimates of mineralizable N in the soil that correlated well with the indexes obtained using aerobic incubation. The inclusion of the pre-existing NH4+-N content improved the reliability of the estimate of mineralizable N obtained using anaerobic incubation.
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