Microbial biomass and mineralization-immobilization of nitrogen in some agricultural soils

Abstract

The chloroform fumigation-incubation method (CFIM) was used to measure the microbial biomass of 17 agricultural soils from Punjab Pakistan which represented different agricultural soil series. The biomass C was used to calculate biomass N and the changes occurring in NH4 +-N and NO3 −-N content of soils were studied during the turnover of microbial biomass or added C source. Mineral N released in fumigated-incubated soils and biomass N calculated from biomass C was correlated with some N availability indexes. The soils contained 427–1240 kg C as biomass which represented 1.2%–6.9% of the total organic C in the soils studied. Calculations based on biomass C showed that the soils contained 64–186 kg N ha−1 as microbial biomass. Immobilization of NCO3 −-N was observed in different soils during the turnover of microbial biomass and any net increase in mineral N content of fumigated incubated soils was attributed entirely to NH4 +-N. Biomass N calculated from biomass C showed non-significant correlation with different N availability indexes whereas mineral N accumulated in fumigated-incubated soils showed highly significant correlations with other indexes including N uptake by plants.