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Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering

ISSN 2095-7505

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Front. Agr. Sci. Eng.
RESEARCH ARTICLE
REGIONAL ASSESSMENT OF SOIL NITROGEN MINERALIZATION IN DIVERSE CROPLAND OF A REPRESENTATIVE INTENSIVE AGRICULTURAL AREA
Peng XU1, Minghua ZHOU1(), Bo ZHU1, Klaus BUTTERBACH-BAHL2
1. Key Laboratory of Mountain Surface Processes and Ecological Regulation, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
2. Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research, Atmospheric Environmental Research (IMK-IFU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Garmisch-Partenkirchen 82467, Germany
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Abstract

● Soil N mineralization (Nmin) rates varied spatially among cropland fields.

● Soil Nmin rates increased with a decreasing elevation.

● Soil Nmin was mainly affected by SOC, TN, and available C and N.

● Nmin in cropland soil should be considered when evaluating regional water pollution.

Soil nitrogen mineralization (Nmin) is a key process that converts organic N into mineral N that controls soil N availability to plants. However, regional assessments of soil Nmin in cropland and its affecting factors are lacking, especially in relation to variation in elevation. In this study, a 4-week incubation experiment was implemented to measure net soil Nmin rate, gross nitrification (Nit) rate and corresponding soil abiotic properties in five field soils (A–C, maize; D, flue-cured tobacco; and E, vegetables; with elevation decreasing from A to E) from different altitudes in a typical intensive agricultural area in Dali City, Yunnan Province, China. The results showed that soil Nmin rate ranged from 0.10 to 0.17 mg·kg−1·d−1 N, with the highest value observed in field E, followed by fields D, C, B, and A, which indicated that soil Nmin and Nit rates varied between fields, decreasing with elevation. The soil Nit rate ranged from 434.2 to 827.1 µg·kg−1·h−1 N, with the highest value determined in field D, followed by those in fields E, C, B, and A. The rates of soil Nmin and Nit were positively correlated with several key soil parameters, including total soil N, dissolved organic carbon and dissolved inorganic N across all fields, which indicated that soil variables regulated soil Nmin and Nit in cropland fields. In addition, a strong positive relationship was observed between soil Nmin and Nit. These findings provide a greater understanding of the response of soil Nmin among cropland fields related to spatial variation. It is suggested that the soil Nmin from cropland should be considered in the evaluation of the N transformations at the regional scale.
Keywords cropland      gross nitrification rate      regulatory factors      soil nitrogen mineralization      spatial variation     
Corresponding Author(s): Minghua ZHOU   
Online First Date: 29 November 2023   
 Cite this article:   
Peng XU,Minghua ZHOU,Bo ZHU, et al. REGIONAL ASSESSMENT OF SOIL NITROGEN MINERALIZATION IN DIVERSE CROPLAND OF A REPRESENTATIVE INTENSIVE AGRICULTURAL AREA[J]. Front. Agr. Sci. Eng. , 29 November 2023. [Epub ahead of print] doi: 10.15302/J-FASE-2023515.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fase/EN/10.15302/J-FASE-2023515
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fase/EN/Y/V/I/0
Fig.1  Locations of sampled cropland fields; A, B, and C were maize fields, D was a flue-cured tobacco field, and E was a vegetable field (审图号: GS 京 (2023) 2266 号).
Field SOC (mg·kg−1 C) TN (mg·kg−1 N) NH4+ (mg·kg−1 N) NO3– (mg·kg−1 N) DOC (mg·kg−1 C) Bulk density (g·cm−3) pH
A: maize 21.8 ± 0.94 2.33 ± 0.03 4.67 ± 0.14 15.5 ± 1.33 62.4 ± 2.40 1.02 ± 0.01 5.22
B: maize 18.4 ± 0.44 2.25 ± 0.13 2.13 ± 0.07 4.55 ± 0.23 69.8 ± 2.57 1.03 ± 0.02 6.60
C: maize 18.7 ± 0.06 1.93 ± 0.01 10.1 ± 1.09 11.0 ± 0.39 76.0 ± 0.89 1.05 ± 0.02 4.25
D: flue-cured tobacco 23.8 ± 1.28 2.99 ± 0.06 12.8 ± 0.56 22.64 ± 1.51 89.4 ± 6.54 0.98 ± 0.02 6.08
E: vegetables 21.3 ± 1.19 2.52 ± 0.05 16.0 ± 1.11 17.7 ± 2.12 96.6 ± 5.23 1.01 ± 0.02 6.42
Tab.1  Topsoil (0–20 cm) initial physicochemical properties of soil from five cropland fields
Fig.2  Content of soil total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), and the ratio of TOC to TN for five cropland fields. Different lowercase letters represent significant difference (LSD, P < 0.05), while the same lowercase letters represent no significantly difference between cropland fields.
Fig.3  Dynamics of (a) soil NH4+, (b) soil NO3–, (c) dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and (d) the ratio of DOC to dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) under incubation period for five cropland fields.
Fig.4  Dynamics of soil pH under incubation period for five cropland fields.
Field Initial soil DIN content (mg·kg−1 N) Final soil DIN content (mg·kg−1 N) Net Nmin content (mg·kg−1 N) Nmin rate (mg·kg−1·d−1 N) Annual Nmin content (kg·ha−1·y−1 N)
A: maize 20.55 ± 5.49 b 23.53 ± 2.34 b 2.98 ± 0.62 b 0.10 ± 0.02 c 74.5 ± 17.08 c
B: maize 6.97 ± 2.16 c 10.19 ± 0.77 c 3.22 ± 0.25 b 0.11 ± 0.03c 80.3 ± 27.23 c
C: maize 17.12 ± 5.73 b 21.18 ± 2.19 b 4.06 ± 2.01 b 0.14 ± 0.04 b 102.1 ± 23.60 b
D: flue-cured tobacco 36.46 ± 7.84 a 40.93 ± 4.56 a 4.47 ± 1.56 ab 0.15 ± 0.02 ab 107.6 ± 24.05 ab
E: vegetables 34.75 ± 4.34 a 40.27 ± 5.11 a 5.52 ± 0.42 a 0.17 ± 0.03 a 127.1 ± 31.53 a
Tab.2  Topsoil (0–20 cm) organic N mineralization rate during the 30 days incubation duration for five sampled fields
Field Nitrification rate (ug·kg−1·h−1 N)
A: maize 470.5
B: maize 434.2
C: maize 540.1
D: flue-cured tobacco 827.1
E: vegetables 671.6
Tab.3  Soil nitrification rate for five cropland fields based on barometric process separation system[23]
TOC TN C/N DOC NH4+ NO3– pH Nmin content Nmin rate Nit rate
TOC 1
TN 0.86** 1
C/N −0.25 −0.71* 1
DOC 0.32 0.52 −0.50 1
NH4+ 0.45 0.44 −0.18 0.90** 1
NO3– 0.97** 0.88** −0.33 0.51 0.62* 1
pH 0.16 0.56* −0.93** 0.34 0.04 0.22 1
Nmin content 0.39 0.58* −0.33 0.98** 0.95** 0.54 0.18 1
Nmin rate 0.38 0.57* −0.40 0.97** 0.91** 0.53 0.26 0.98** 1
Nit rate 0.53 0.79** −0.42 0.82** 0.80** 0.81** 0.19 0.83** 0.81** 1
Tab.4  Relativity of between soil N mineralization and soil basic physicochemical characters of all cropland
Fig.5  Relationships between soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) (a) and NH4+ (b) and N mineralization rate for five cropland fields.
Source Country Land uses Method Nmin rate (mg·kg−1·d−1 N) Nmin average rate (mg·kg−1·d−1 N)
[5] England Forest In situ incubation 0.08–0.25 0.15
[6] America Forest In situ incubation 0.08–1.20 0.64
[7] China Forest Laboratory incubation −1.89–0.81 0.18
[8] China Grassland Laboratory incubation 1.19–1.49 –
[9] Canada Cropland In situ incubation – 0.75
[10] German Cropland In situ incubation 0.04–0.30 0.17
[11] China Cropland Laboratory incubation 0.81–1.51 1.15
[12] Canada Forest Laboratory incubation 0.02–0.53 0.04
[24] Venezuela Forest In situ incubation – 0.40
[25] Greece Cropland Laboratory incubation 0.10–0.65 0.40
[26] America Forest N balance – 1.10
[27] Australia Forest In situ and laboratory incubation −0.08–1.87 0.49
[28] America Cropland In situ incubation 0.27–0.41 0.34
[29] Venezuela Cropland Laboratory incubation 0.02–0.03 0.03
[30] Denmark Cropland In situ incubation 0.30–0.70 0.30
This study China Cropland Laboratory incubation 0.10–0.17 0.13
Tab.5  Comparison among daily soil N mineralization rate under different land uses
Fig.6  Relationships between nitrification rate and soil total nitrogen (a), NH4+ (b), NO3– (c), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) (d) for five cropland fields.
Fig.7  Relationships between soil nitrification and N mineralization rate for five cropland fields.
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