Simulating the dynamics of glucose and NH4+ in alkaline saline soils of the former Lake Texcoco with the Detran model

Abstract

SummaryThe turnover of organic matter determines the availability of plant nutrients in unfertilized soils, and this applies particularly to the alkaline saline soil of the former Lake Texcoco in Mexico. We investigated the effects of alkalinity and salinity on dynamics of organic material and inorganic N added to the soil. Glucose labelled with 14C was added to soil of the former Lake Texcoco drained for different lengths of time, and dynamics of 14C, C and N were investigated with the Detran model. Soil was sampled from an undrained plot and from three drained for 1, 5 and 8 years, amended with 1000 mg 14C‐labelled glucose kg−1 and 200 mg NH4+‐N kg−1, and incubated aerobically. Production of 14CO2 and CO2, dynamics of NH4+, NO2– and NO3–, and microbial biomass 14C, C and N were monitored and simulated with the Detran model. A third stable microbial biomass fraction had to be introduced in the model to simulate the dynamics of glucose, because > 90 mg 14C kg−1 soil persisted in the soil microbial biomass after 97 days. The observed priming effect was mostly due to an increased decay of soil organic matter, but an increased turnover of the microbial biomass C contributed somewhat to the phenomenon. The dynamics of NH4+ and NO3– in the NH4+‐amended soil could not be simulated unless an immobilization of NH4+ into the microbial biomass occurred in the first day of the incubation without an immediate incorporation of it into microbial organic material. The dynamics of C and a priming effect could be simulated satisfactorily, but the model had to be adjusted to simulate the dynamics of N when NH4+ was added to alkaline saline soils.