Carbon turnover and nitrogen transformations in an alfisol and vertisol amended with [U- 14C] glucose and [ 15N] ammonium sulfate

Abstract

Two topsoils, a Vertisol and an Alfisol, and the Alfisol subsoil were each amended with [U- 14C] glucose and ( 15N) (NH 4) 2 SO 4, and incubated for 112 days. Glucose was decomposed without lag in the two topsoils. Throughout the incubation the extent of decomposition of 14C-labelled residues was greater, and the accumulation of residual 14C as microbial biomass 14C was less, in the lighter-textured, weakly-aggregated Alfisol topsoil than in the well-structured, high-clay Vertisol. In the Alfisol topsoil, net immobilization of inorganic N during glucose metabolism included both the added 15N-labelled NH 4 + N and also the N 3 − N present in the soil initially, to yield microbial residues of relatively low C:N ratio ( ca 7–8:1). By contrast, during the rapid phase of net N immobilization in the Vertisol added NH 4 + N was utilized to the exclusion of NO 3 − N, thus resulting in residues of high C:N ratio (>20:1). Net mineralization of immobilized N and 15N occurred sooner and was more extensive in the Alfisol topsoil than in the Vertisol. Decomposition of glucose in the Alfisol subsoil, of similar clay content as the Vertisol but of weak aggregate stability, occurred after a 3–4 day lag. Decomposition of 14C residues continued to an extent intermediate between those obtained with the topsoils, but the proportions of residual organic 14C present as biomass 14C were relatively very low. The subsoil contained low NO 3 − concentrations initially, and products of immobilization during rapid glucose metabolism were of C : N ratios similar to that of the Vertisol. From measurements of 14CO 2 evolution rates and net changes in glucose-derived organic 14C and microbial biomass 14C, calculations were made of gross rates of turnover of 14C through the biomass in each of the three soils. First-order decay rates of biomass 14C and non-biomass 14C declined with decreases in the assigned efficiencies of substrate utilization, and with incubation time. For any assigned level of substrate utilization efficiency, the observed differences in total 14C behaviour in the two topsoils were due mainly to major differences in the calculated gross rates of decline of biomass 14C, those in the low-clay Alfisol being 2.0–2.8 times greater than those in the high-clay Vertisol. Relative differences in the calculated gross rates of decline of non-biomass 14C in the two topsoils were far less (1.0–1.2 times). Thus, analysis of 14C turnover rates indicated that differences in the stabilization of biomass 14C, rather than in the stabilization of the 14C of the products of cell death and metabolism, were responsible for the short-term (112 days) differences in 14C behaviour in the topsoils. Of the three soils, rates of decay of 14C in biomass were most rapid, and rates of decay 14C in non-biomass were least rapid in the subsoil, resulting in the very low proportions of residual organic 14C of this soil present as biomass 14C.