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Miscible Displacement of Nitrate and Chloride under Field Conditions¹

ABSTRACT

In an attempt to develop the capability for predicting the reduction loss of NO₃-N during leaching of nitrate fertilizers in an Oxisol field profile, a 2-cm pulse of Ca(NO₃)₂ solution containing 304 ppm of NO₃-N was displaced through a 300-cm by 300-cm field plot saturated with water down to the depth of 55 cm. On the following day an identical pulse of NH₄Cl solution containing 795 ppm of Cl was leached through the same plot. The results were analyzed by means of a convective diffusion type transport equation that incorporated an irreversible first-order sink term. The agreement between the observed and the theoretical breakthrough curves allowed the determination of the first-order reduction rate constant for NO₃-N as 0.1 hour^–1 at an average soil temperature of 34°C. Under these conditions, the recovery of added NO₃-N in the leachate was 70% whereas that of Cl was 100%, approximately, when the two pulses moved past the 55-cm soil depth. The apparent diffusion coefficients for NO₃-N and Cl were velocity dependent and ranged between 41 cm² hour^–1 to 80 cm² hour^–1, corresponding to the pore velocity range of 11.5 cm hour^–1 to 17 cm hour^–1. Although the present model was reasonably successful in predicting transport of ions undergoing microbial transformation in a natural soil, a more appropriate treatment should consider ion movement in stagnant and mobile phases in the soil pores in view of greater precision in working out the kinetics of biodegradable solutes.

¹ Contribution from the Dep. of Soils and Agric. Chemistry, Orissa Univ. of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar-751003, India. Partial support in the form of a fellowship was received by the junior author from the Indian Council of Agric. Res., New Delhi.

² Soil Physicist and Senior Research Assistant, respectively. Dryland Agric. Res. Proj., Orissa Univ. of Agriculture and Technology.

Received for publication January 9, 1976. Accepted for publication September 27, 1976.

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