Evaluation of three incubation designs for mineralization kinetics of organic materials in soil

Abstract

Carbon (C) mineralization was assessed during incubations of a Mediterranean sandy soil amended with various organic by‐products covering a wide range of C and nitrogen (N) contents. The laboratory incubation systems consist in measuring continuously the soil respiration (as CO₂‐C) in closed chambers, or less current, in pre‐storing soil containers in semi‐open chambers until transferred and measured for CO₂‐C evolved in closed ‘measuring‐jars’. The latest were improved, the new designs permitting to test a much greater number of by‐products with a minimum handling. No significant differences were found between the results obtained by the different incubation systems. The storage systems using pre‐storage of soils gave reproducible cumulative CO₂‐C curves. Results obtained with the pre‐storage systems could be compared confidently to C mineralization data from studies using permanent closed chambers. One of them was specially reliable and can thus be recommended for long‐term incubation experiments.

Notes

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