modelling nitrogen mineralization from manures representing.pdf

Date: 13 January 2004 Number of text pages: 19 Number of tables: 2 Number of figures: 7 Modelling nitrogen mineralization from manures: representing quality aspects by varying C:N ratio of sub-pools a, * b c d M E Probert , R J Delve , S K Kimani and J P Dimes a CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Queensland Bioscience Precinct, 306 Carmody Road, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 b Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute of International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, PO Box 6247, Kampala, Uganda c Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Muguga, PO Box 30148, Nairobi, Kenya d International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics, PO Box 776, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. • Corresponding author. Address: CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, 306 Carmody Road, St Lucia, Queensland 4067, Australia. Tel.: +61-7 fax: +61-7 E-mail address: bert@csiro.au 1 Abstract The mineralization/immobilization of nitrogen when organic sources are added to soil is represented in many simulation models as the outcome of decomposition of the added material and synthesis of soil organic matter. These models are able to capture the pattern of N release that is attributable to the N concentration of plant materials, or more generally the C:N ratio of the organic input. However the models are unable to simulate the more complex pattern of N release that has been reported for some animal manures, notably materials that exhibit initial immobilization of N even when the C:N of the material suggests it should mineralize N. The APSIM SoilN module was modified so that the three pools that constitute added organic matter could be specified in terms of both the fraction of carbon in each pool and also their C:N ratios (previously it has been assumed that all pools have the same C:N ratio). It is shown that