Title: Effects of tillage on deposition and utilization of 15N residual fertilizer
Abstract: Abstract Differences in soil tillage can influence the utilization of fertilizer N. This study determined the effect of zero tillage (ZT) and conventional shallow tillage (CT), of three years duration, on the deposition and dynamics of residual 15 N urea. The study was conducted on a Chernozemic soil in a semiarid region of the Canadian prairie. In the absence of tillage, microbial biomass N levels increased by 48% and mineral N levels decreased by 62%, at the 0–5-cm soil depth, compared to the CT soil. The ZT soil had 96% more residual N distributed in the non-biomass organic N, but 52% less in the mineral and microbial biomass forms of soil N, compared to the CT soil. These tillage induced changes affected the short-term availability of residual 15 N as determined by N mineralization and plant utilization studies. Potentially mineralizable N (N 0 ) was higher, but release of 15 N residual fertilizer was slower in the ZT soil, compared to CT soil. Initial plant uptake of soil N was similar between tillage systems, although three times as much residual fertilizer was derived from the CT as compared to the ZT soil. Mineralization or plant uptake reduced the differences in 15 N residual fertilizer deposition between tillage soil samples. Tillage differences may influence the short-term N balance of soils receiving N fertilizer. Such changes are related to the greater level of microbial biomass in the surface of ZT soils.
Publication Year: 1987
Publication Date: 1987-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 19
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