Effect of Soil Salinity on Nitrogen Mineralization of Livestock Manure Compost in Salt-Affected Coastal Soils

Abstract

We conducted a short-term incubation experiment in order to understand the effect of the salinity of reclaimed coastal soils on nitrogen mineralization of livestock manure compost (LMC). Two soils with the same soil texture but different EC levels were collected from the same field. These samples were treated with 0%, 1%, 2%, and 3% of LMC by weight basis and incubated at 25°C to observe changes in inorganic N contents, pH, and dehydrogenase activity with respect to time. As a result, regardless of the soil EC level, as the LMC increased, the total content of the inorganic N (NH₄ + + NO 3- ) increased. Difference in the soil EC level did not affect N mineralization of LMC greatly. The soil EC had negligible effect on the dehydrgenase activity as with the case of inorganic nitrogen. The NH₄ + contents remained very low throughout the experimental period starting from the first week of incubation. We believe this is due to the high pH level (pH 7.9 and pH 8.3) of the original soils leading to ammonia volatilization. On the other hand the NO 3- content maintained high level as the LMC treatment level increased and reached maximum at the third week. The pH of the soil during incubation period decreased as the NO 3- contents increased and increased slightly after three weeks. The rise of pH level is believed to be from the NO 3- absorption for immobilization by microbes. In conclusion, the high soil EC 1:5 level of 12 dS m -1 conducted in this experiment did not affect the growth in terms of soil microbes involved in N mineralization of LMC.