Abstract
Incubation experiments were conducted to determine the relationship between N mineralization potential of soils and yield or N uptake of barley grain. In addition, the effect of soil type and soil depth on N mineralization potential was investigated. In an experiment with 39 cultivated surface soil samples varying in organic C from 1.5 to 8.6%, the amount of mineralized N (as determined by the incubation method of Stanford and Smith, 1972) ranged from 34 to 111 mg N kg−1 over a 12-week period but the correlation coefficient between mineralized N and soil organic C was only 0.49**. Mineralized N was not correlated with grain yield or N uptake (r = 0.29 or 0.32, respectively), but there was a fairly close correlation between soil NO3-N at sowing and yield (r = 0.79**) or N uptake of barley grain (r = 0.82**). Combining soil NO3-N at sowing and mineralized N on incubation did not improve correlation. In the other experiment with just two soils, the mineralized N sharply decreased with increasing soil depth.
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Malhi, S.S., Nyborg, M. & Heaney, D.J. Potential for nitrogen mineralization in central Alberta soils. Fertilizer Research 32, 321–325 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01050369
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01050369