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Fixation and Loss of Nitrogen During Transformations of Nitrite in Soils¹

ABSTRACT

When alkaline-hydrolyzing N fertilizers are band-applied to soils, the biological oxidation of NO₂^- is inhibited and NO₂^- may accumulate. Nitrite can react chemically with soil organic matter and become fixed, and at the same time nitrogenous gases can be evolved. The aim of the work described here was to study mechanisms of gaseous-N formation using ¹⁵NO₂^- as a tracer, and to define the relationship between fixation and loss of N.

Fixation of Na¹⁵NO₂ in five soils varying in pH and organic C content ranged from 0.6 to 36% of applied NO₂^-, while the ¹⁵N not recovered varied from 6 to 53%. A significant positive correlation was found between ¹⁵N fixed and ¹⁵N not recovered in the five soils, sampled after 1, 2, and 3 days of incubation.

The ¹⁵N enrichment of NO + NO₂ evolved from three -irradiated soils treated with Na¹⁵NO₂ was only slightly less than the atom % ¹⁵N of added NO₂^-, and the rate of evolution increased as the pH of the soils decreased. These data suggest that NO + NO₂ was derived from the self-decomposition of HNO₂. Approximately equal amounts of indigenous soil N and added NO₂^--N reacted to form N₂, indicating that a Van Slyke-type reaction may have been partly responsible. Differences in the atom % ¹⁵N₂ between soils suggested that more than one loss mechanism was operating, and that their relative importance may have been determined by soil pH. Nitrogen-15 balance data showed that another nitrogenous gas, in addition to N₂O, was evolved.

¹ Contribution from the School of Agric. and Forestry, Univ. of Melbourne, Parkville 3052, Victoria, Australia.

² Graduate Student and Lecturer in Soil Science, respectively. The senior author is now Postdoctoral Associate, Center for Wetland Resources, Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, LA 70803.

Received for publication April 24, 1979. Accepted for publication November 6, 1979.

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