Biological immobilization of fertilizer nitrogen in humid tropical soils of Mauritius
| MSI99P0226 | |
| Ng Kee Kwong, K. F. Deville, J. Cavalot, P. C. Rivière, V. | |
| Biological immobilization of fertilizer nitrogen in humid tropical soils of Mauritius | |
| Periodical article | |
| 1986 | |
| Soil Sci. | |
| 0038-075X | |
| 141: 195-199 | |
| En | |
| The influence of the biological immobilization rate on the mobility and fate of fertilizer N under the humid climate of Mauritius was studied in soil columns using (NH4)2SO4 labelled with 10 per cent atom excess 15N and sorghum as the test plant. Biological immobilization of fertilizer N occurred rapidly and was almost complete within 2 months after fertilization. Most (>70 per cent) of the immobilized fertilizer N remained hydriolizable in 6 M HCl 10 months after fertilization. Rapid biological immobilzation, coupled with the fast uptake of fertilizer N by sorghum, led to less than 5 to 12 per cent of fertilizer N being leached frojm the rock-free (3035 mm water applied), respectively. This study draws attention to the fact that in wet tropical regions, such as Mauritius, where soil temperature is always conducive to biological immobilization and where the soil colloids fix negligible quantities of NH4+, biological immobilization plays a leading role in hampering the mobility of N in soils, therby altering the fate of fertilizer N. | |
| FERTILIZERS NITROGEN SOILS SUGARCANE IMMOBILIZATION LEACHING NITROGEN FERTILIZERS PLANT NUTRITION | |
| MAURITIUS | |
| Sugarcane: Soils and plant nutrition | |
| Fertilization: Nitrogen | |
| 1992-02-15 | |
| En | |
| Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute | |
| LIB | |
| CAT | |
| CHEM |