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Carbon and Nitrogen Mineralization Kinetics in Soil Previously Amended with Sewage Sludge

IPH, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115

E. A. Paul

Dept. of Crop & Soil Sciences, Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI 48824

* Corresponding author.

ABSTRACT

Microbial mineralization rates of organic carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) were determined on the same sludge-amended and nonamended soil samples. The purpose of this integrated approach was to high-light the long-term dynamics of N release with C stabilization in sludge-affected soil. Three application rates of digested municipal sludge, check, 45 Mg ha^–1 and 180 Mg ha^–1, were incorporated into field plots annually for 8 years, with no addition during the subsequent 3 years. Barley was grown on the site each spring of the 11 years. In an 87-week laboratory incubation experiment conducted on soil samples collected 3 years after the last sludge addition, N and C mineralization rates (k_n, k_c) increased with sludge application rate. Soil nitrogen mineralization potentials (N_o) increased with sludge application, unlike carbon mineralization potentials (C_o) which did not correlate with sludge application. The C/N ratio of the mineralized organic matter decreased with sludge application rate. Three years after field incorporation of sludge, decomposition of the organic fraction can be described as a set of two first-order rate reactions. One fraction is characterized by a large stable element (high N_o, C_o and low k_n, k_c); the second fraction consists of a smaller labile portion which is characterized by low N_o, C_o and high k_n, k_c values. The microbial biomass decreased to less than half of its original amount after 20 weeks of incubation in all soil treatments.

Contribution from the Dept. of Plant & Soil Biology, Univ. of California, Berkeley.

Received for publication January 20, 1988.

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