Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
Volume 22, Issue 14, Pages 10850-10860Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-015-4262-8
Keywords
N-15 dilution technique; Land use change; Ammonification; N immobilization; Nitrification
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [31101605, 31260503, 31160413]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Land use change affects soil gross nitrogen (N) transformations, but such information is particularly lacking under subtropical conditions. A study was carried out to investigate the potential gross N transformation rates in forest and agricultural (converted from the forest) soils in subtropical China. The simultaneously occurring gross N transformations in soil were quantified by a N-15 tracing study under aerobic conditions. The results showed that change of land use types substantially altered most gross N transformation rates. The gross ammonification and nitrification rates were significantly higher in the agricultural soils than in the forest soils, while the reverse was true for the gross N immobilization rates. The higher total carbon (C) concentrations and C / N ratio in the forest soils relative to the agricultural soils were related to the greater gross N immobilization rates in the forest soils. The lower gross ammonification combined with negligible gross nitrification rates, but much higher gross N immobilization rates in the forest soils than in the agricultural soils suggest that this may be a mechanism to effectively conserve available mineral N in the forest soils through increasing microbial biomass N, the relatively labile organic N. The greater gross nitrification rates and lower gross N immobilization rates in the agricultural soils suggest that conversion of forests to agricultural soils may exert more negative effects on the environment by N loss through NO3 (-) leaching or denitrification (when conditions for denitrification exist).
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available