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The Influence of Plant Residues on Denitrification Rates in Conventional and Zero Tilled Soils¹

ABSTRACT

A field study was conducted with treatments consisting of a factorial combination of N (0 or 100 kg N ha^–1 as (NH₄)₂SO₄, straw (0 or 3000 kg ha^–1), and two tillage treatments. Ground straw was mixed with the plow layer of soil in the conventional till (CT) plots and chopped straw was spread over the surface of the zero till (ZT) plots. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) was grown as the test crop. Gaseous losses of N were measured using the acetylene inhibition-soil core technique and compared with loss estimates obtained from the imbalance in the N budget of ¹⁵N-treated microplots located within the larger yield plots. When adequate inorganic N was present, the incorporation of straw in CT soil or the application of straw on the surface of ZT soil approximately doubled the accumulative gaseous N losses. The straw apparently increased the supply of energy material available to denitrifying organisms, and also increased surface soil moisture content (particularly during the month of June). This further stimulated denitrification in ZT soil. Unaccounted ¹⁵N on the fertilizer N balance studies agreed closely with cumulative N losses using the acetylene inhibition technique.

¹ Contribution from the Saskatchewan Inst. of Pedology, Saskatoon, Canada; Publication no. R338. This paper was presented in Div. S-3, Soil Science Society of America Meetings, 14–19 August 1983, Washington, D.C.

² Commonwealth Scholar; Professor, Dep. of Soil Science, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada; and Professor and Chair, Dep. of Plant and Soil Biology, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.

Received for publication September 19, 1983. Accepted for publication March 14, 1984.

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