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Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur Mineralization in Plow and No-Till Cultivation

Dep. of Agronomy, Univ. of Missouri, Delta Res. Center, Portageville, MO 63873

D. G. Westfall and G. A. Peterson

Dep. of Agronomy, Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO 80523

E. T. Elliott and C. V. Cole

Natural Resource Ecology Lab., Fort Collins, CO 80523

* Corresponding author.

ABSTRACT

Conversion to reduced-tillage management systems by winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) producers may cause changes in soil organic-matter transformations. This study was conducted to monitor C, N, P, and S mineralization differences between soils with notillage and conventional-tillage winter wheat/summer fallow management histories. Intact soil cores were taken from research plots that had been in no-tillage and conventional tillage for 16 yr. Cores were incubated at 25 °C and 350 g water kg^–1 soil for 84 d. Carbon dioxide evolution, NO₃-N, NH₄-N, PO₄-P (as NaHCO₃-exchangeable P), SO₄-S and recoverable plant-residue (>2 mm) content were determined for soil depths of 0 to 2.5 cm, 2.5 to 5 cm, and 5 to 15 cm at 0, 7, 14, 28, 56 and 84 d of incubation. No-till soils accumulated greater NO₃-N, SO₄-S, and PO₄-P at the 0- to 2.5-cm soil depth than did year-old plow (preplow) and recently plowed (plow) soils. Tillage did not influence net N, P, and S mineralization below the 5-cm soil depth. No-tillage soils peaked at 26 kg ha^–1 SO₄-4 in the top 15 cm compared with 19 and 15 kg ha^–1 SO₄-S for plow and preplow soils, respectively. A nonstoichiometric accumulation of soil NO₃-N, PO₄-P, and SO₄-S was observed within and among tillage treatments, indicating that N, P, and S transformations were partially controlled by separate processes associated with the tillage operations.

Joint contribution from the Dep. of Agronomy, Natural Resources Ecology Lab., USDA-ARS, and the Colorado Agric. Exp. Stn. (Project 1-53240 and 5-3230).

Received for publication March 10, 1989.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S.H. Daroub, F.J. Pierce, and B.G. Ellis Phosphorus Fractions and Fate of Phosphorus-33 in Soils under Plowing and No-Tillage Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., January 1, 2000; 64(1): 170 - 176. [Abstract] [Full Text]