ISSN:
1573-515X
Keywords:
nitrogen
;
particulate organic matter
;
nutrient cycling
;
grassland
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Geosciences
Notes:
Abstract A set of long term15N studies was initiated during the summers of 1981 and 1982 on the backslope and footslope, respectively, of a catena in the shortgrass steppe of northeastern Colorado. Microplots labeled with15N urea were sampled for15N and total N content in 1981 and 1982 and again in 1992. In November, 1982, 100% of the added N was recovered in the soil-plant system of the finer-textured footslope, compared to 39% in the coarser-textured backslope microplots. Ten years later,15N recovery of the applied N decreased at both topographic positions to 85% in the footslope and 29% in the backslope. Average losses since the time of application were 3.5 g N m−2yr−1 in the backslope and 0.8 g N m−2yr−1 in the footslope. In 1992, soil organic matter was physically fractionated into particulate (POM) and mineral associated (MAON) fractions and 21-day mineralization incubations were conducted to assess the relative amounts of15N that were in the slow, passive and active soil organic matter pools, respectively, of the two soils. Our findings confirm the assumptions that POM represents a large portion of the slow organic compartment and that the MAON represents a large fraction of the passive compartment defined in the Century model. The N located in the MAON had the lowest availability for plant uptake. Isotopic data were consistent with textural effects and with the Century model compartmentalization of soil organic N based on the residence time of the organic N.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00001531
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