Rapid reduction of nitrate in soil re-moistened after air-drying

Abstract

SUMMARYWhen an organic calcareous soil was air-dried for 2 days and re-wetted to a wide range of moisture contents, well below saturation, nitrite accumulated within 1–2 days. At the same time much nitrate was formed and more carbon dioxide was released than from soil kept moist. On further incubation of re-wetted soil for 3–5 days, the nitrite concentration decreased rapidly. Since 15N-labelled nitrate was reduced to nitrite after air-drying and re-wetting, and no nitrite was formed in autoclaved soil, nitrate was microbially reduced.Eighty-three per cent of added 15N tracer was recovered from the soil 2 days after re-wetting to 70 % moisture, indicating that 58 ppm N had been lost; 10 ppm N of this was released as nitrous oxide. Autoclaved soil to which nitrite was added did not evolve nitrous oxide, suggesting that nitrite was reduced biologically rather than decomposed chemically.Three other soils were treated similarly; two, which were non-calcareous, accumulated no nitrite. Fresh calcareous soils with high respiration rates and good capacities to denitrify when waterlogged are most likely to form nitrite after drying and moderate re-wetting.