Abstract

A field trial was carried out to compare the transformations and plant uptake of urine N and S in a short-term pasture from within an arable/pasture ley rotation and a long-term pasture. Animal urine labelled with 15N and 35S was applied to microplots at both sites. These microplots were destructively sampled at various time intervals over 12 months and analysed for 15N and 35S. It is known that soil organic matter accumulates under short-term pastures compared with a long-term pasture in which accumulation and degradation are in balance. Consequently, it was hypothesised that immobilization of urine N and S is more intense in the short-term. However, in this study there was considerably less immobilization of 15N and 35S into soil organic forms under short-term pasture than long-term pasture. This was attributable to a greater pasture dry matter response to urine application under the short-term pasture (due to its inherently low N fertility) resulting in a greater plant uptake of 15N and 35S with less 15N and 35S consequently being available for immobilization. At both sites, all of the applied 35S was accounted for through plant uptake and recovery in the soil, but 21–48% of the 15N was unaccounted for and presumed to have been lost through gaseous emissions. It was concluded that accumulation of soil organic N and S under short-term pastures is likely to be attributable to turnover of plant residues (particularly root material) and does not appear to be related to immobilization in urine patches.

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