Application of Pyrolysis Cryogenic Trap Gas Chromatography/Atomic Emission Detection (Py-CryT-GC/AED) for the Study of Nitrogen Forms and Dynamics in a Grassland Soil

Abstract

Soil organic nitrogen (N) was characterized for its chemical species and chemical transformations in a grassland soil profile by using a combination of cryogenic pyrolysis gas chromatography atomic emission detection method with soil physical size fractionation. The soils taken from 0–12, 12–25, and 25–38 cm depth layers were separated into five fractions, <2, 2–38, 38–53, 53–105, and 105–250 µm and each of which was analyzed for total organic C and N, and different N forms. Our results showed that (1) total organic carbon has a positive correlation with the total organic nitrogen (TON) with correlation coefficient increased with soil depth; (2) deep and small particle-size fraction soils yielded more volatile pyrolysate N than the surface and large particle-size fractions and the amount of volatile pyrolysate N has a linear positive correlation with TON and correlation coefficient increased with soil depth; (3) the major components of the volatile pyrolysate N include ammonia, acetonitrile, hydrogen cyanide, pyridine, and pyrrole; (4) of the total volatile pyrolysate N, ammonia accounted for more than 40%, and the sum of acetonitrile and hydrogen cyanide accounted for approximately 30–50%; and (5) the amounts of acetonitrile, hydrogen cyanide, and pyridine had increased positive correlations with TON with increasing soil depth, but the correlation between the amount of pyrrole and depth decreased in the opposite direction. Our research result sheds some light into soil organic nitrogen forms and its transformations in the processes of soil organic C aging and stabilization.

Keywords:

• Atomic emission detection
• Cryogenic trap
• Forms of soil organic N
• Gas chromatography
• Grassland soil
• Pyrolysis

Acknowledgments

This paper is part of a special issue honoring New Investigators in the Analytical Sciences.

This research was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation/EPSCoR Grant #EPS-0091948, the State of South Dakota, and by the SDSM&T Research Office. The authors thank Mr. Z. Cai for his help with this research and three anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.