Effect of organic matier application and water regimes on the transformation of fertilizer nitrogen in a Philippine soil

TLDR: In this paper, the tracer technique was used to measure the amount of nitrogen trapped in the Maahas clay soil to which no organic material was added, and it was found that 20% of the fertilizer nitrogen added as basal to the soil was immobilized in submerged soils.

Abstract: Greenhouse experiments using the tracer technique showed that about 20 per cent of the fertilizer nitrogen added as basal to the Maahas clay soil wa11 immobilized in submerged soils to which no organic material was added. The addition of organic matter to the soil increases the amount of nitrogen immobilized and the magnitude depends on the carbon to nitrogen ratio of the materials added. More fertilizer nitrogen waa immobilized in the soils under upland and alternate wet-and-dry conditions than under submerged soil conditions. The uptake of fertilizer nitrogen by rice plants growing under submerged soil conditions ceased at the vegetative stage of growth because only a small amou11t of available nitrogen remains in the soil at this time, but the rice plant continued to absorb gradually untagged nitrogen from the soil throughout the reproductive etages of growth. Losses of fertilizer nitrogen were great under the alternate wet-and-dry conditions (submerged-upland). The loss of nitrogen from the s...