Abstract
The aim of the study was to work out a method for quantitative assessment of soil nitrogen available for grassland sward (net mineralization), released in alluvial soils in Żulawy. Quantitative assessment of the pool of released nitrogen enables improvement of N management in fertilization of grassland sward and may contribute to the limitation of its dispersal in the natural environment. Studies were carried out in Żulawy Elbląskie in heavy, shallow humic alluvial soil containing about 350 t of soil organic matter and from 13 to 20 t of total nitrogen (TN) per hectare. The study object was permanent meadow sward of different intensity of utilisation and inorganic fertilisation. The efficiency of net mineralization of soil N was determined with the use of indirect balance method. Łaukajtys’s mini lysimetres installed on each experimental plot were used to estimate nitrogen losses in leachates. Depending on the frequency of mowing and different NPK fertilization, meadow sward took up from 80 to 170 kg N released due to mineralization of soil organic matter, which made up about 25 to 50% of nutrient demands of meadow sward. It was also shown that meadow sward uses from 58% to 78% of the total amount of introduced N for growth increment, depending on the intensity of utilization and fertilization.
Highlights
Rational management of inorganic nitrogen in permanent grasslands is a basic factor, decisive for economically justified nitrogen use in fodder production and, at the same time, may limit the negative effect of agricultural production on natural environment (Sapek 2010).Recognition of plant demands for nutrients is only one of the factors important for rational nutrient management
Meadow sward satisfies its nutrient needs from fertilization and from natural soil resources and, in the case of nitrogen, from biological N fixation and from dry and wet precipitation (Sapek and Nawalany 2006)
It might be of great importance to assess the efficiency of mineralization of organic nitrogen compounds in habitats of mineral meadow soils in order to improve N management on grasslands (Sapek and Kalińska 2004)
Summary
Rational management of inorganic nitrogen in permanent grasslands is a basic factor, decisive for economically justified nitrogen use in fodder production and, at the same time, may limit the negative effect of agricultural production on natural environment (Sapek 2010).Recognition of plant demands for nutrients is only one of the factors important for rational nutrient management. Rational management of inorganic nitrogen in permanent grasslands is a basic factor, decisive for economically justified nitrogen use in fodder production and, at the same time, may limit the negative effect of agricultural production on natural environment (Sapek 2010). It might be of great importance to assess the efficiency of mineralization of organic nitrogen compounds in habitats of mineral meadow soils in order to improve N management on grasslands (Sapek and Kalińska 2004). The amount of soil nitrogen taken up by biomass of yield is termed net mineralization. This is a difference between gross mineralization and microbial immobilization, nitrogen taken up by sward and its losses to the environment (Burzyńska 2013, Terlikowski 2005)
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