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Factors Affecting Denitrification in a Sonoran Desert Soil¹

ABSTRACT

Incubation studies were conducted to determine the effect of temperature, moisture content, organic C, soil depth, and time on transformations of added ¹⁵NO₃-N to a Sonoran Desert soil in open and closed systems. In open system studies, increasing temperature from 20° to 37°C, adding organic C, and increasing moisture content from field capacity to saturation increased denitrification losses 16, 22, and 2%, respectively. There were no apparent differences in immobilization of ¹⁵NO₃-N due to temperature, time, moisture content, or soil depth without organic C amendments. However, immobilization of ¹⁵NO₃-N soils with organic C amendments was increased markedly with increased temperature and time, but initial moisture content had little effect. At C/N ratios of 150:1 only traces of ¹⁵N appeared in NH₄-N, however, at C/N ratios of 15:1 to 45:1 ammonification and immobilization occurred simultaneously.

Closed system investigations with organic C and ¹⁵NO₃-N amendments showed 79% loss in 5 days with the remaining 21% accumulating as organic-¹⁵N. Denitrification losses in open systems with soil moisture contents representative of saturated conditions were 70% of the loss observed under closed systems at the same moisture content.

¹ Contribution from Dept. of Soils, Water, and Engineering, Arizona Agric. Expt. Stn., Tucson, AZ 85721. Published with approval of Director as journal article no. 2703. This work was supported in part by a grant from US IBP Desert Biome Program of the National Science Foundation.

² Associate Professor and Professor, Dep. of Soils, Water, and Engineering, Univ. of Ariz., respectively. Address of senior author is now Dept. of Agronomy, Oklahoma State Univ., Stillwater, Okla.

Received for publication December 9, 1977. Accepted for publication March 9, 1978.

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