Abstract
A sandy soil was amended with various rates (20 – 320 g air-dry weight basis of the amendments per kg of air-dry soil) of chicken manure (CM), sewage sludge (SS), and incinerated sewage sludge (ISS) and incubated for 100 days in a greenhouse at 15% (wt/wt) soil water content. At the beginning of incubation, NH4-N concentrations varied from 50 – 280 mg kg−1 in the CM amended soil with negligible amounts of NO3-N. Subsequently, the concentration of NH4-N decreased while that of NO3-N increased rapidly. In soil amended with SS at 20 – 80 g kg−1 rates, the NO3-N concentration increased sharply during the first 20 days, followed by a slow rate of increase over the rest of the incubation period. However, at a 160 g kg−1 SS rate, there were three distinct phases of NO3-N release which lasted for160 days. In the ISS amended soil, the nitrification process was completed during the initial 30 days, and the concentrations of NH4-N and NO3-N were lower than those for the other treatments. The mineralized N across different rates accounted for 20 – 36%, 16 – 40%, and 26 – 50% of the total N applied as CM, SS, and ISS, respectively.
Acknowledgements
We appreciate the assistance of Tami Baugh, Bill Boge, and Melanie Wilson during the course of this experiment and preparation of the manuscript.