Abstract
Ammonia volatilization causes major nitrogen losses from the soil and applied urea which results in low urea-N usage efficiency. In line to this, laboratory incubation experiment was conducted to assess the effect of rice straw and rice husk biochar on ammonia volatilization, soil pH, exchangeable ammonium, and available nitrate in comparison to the urea without additives under waterlogged conditions. Application of mixture of rice straw and rice husk biochars at application rate 5-10 t ha-1 had significantly minimized ammonia volatilization by 30.86%-38.61% over T1. The biochar mixture also had increased retention of ammonium and nitrate ions with increment of soil pH over control. Hence, the findings suggest that urea amended with rice straw and rice husk biochar altered the nutrients level in soil by minimizing ammonia loss in a way that enhanced nitrogen availability in waterlogged conditions.
Highlights
Nitrogen (N) is a vital soil nutrient essential for good and abundant plant growth (Hajdu 2020)
Urea hydrolyzes upon contact with water and forms ammonia gas (NH3) which is susceptible to atmospheric loss via volatilization process
Exchangeable K, Ca, Mg, and Na was low in the soil due to the soil's lower cation-exchange capacity (CEC) (5.4 cmolc kg-1)
Summary
Nitrogen (N) is a vital soil nutrient essential for good and abundant plant growth (Hajdu 2020). There is a major concern in using urea as a N source because it is hydrolyzed and volatilized to the environment (Sunderlage & Cook 2018; Soares et al 2012). Urea hydrolyzes upon contact with water and forms ammonia gas (NH3) which is susceptible to atmospheric loss via volatilization process. Retention of NH4+ ion in the soil is relatively very poor due to the lack of bindingadsorptive agent. The NH3 volatilization and poor retention of inorganic-N ions become very problematic for both farmers and plants. Deficient of N to plants cause farmers to increase the application of urea fertilizer, whereby this practice is not economical, efficient and reliable for long term use since it creates an environmental problem and costly
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