Measuring and estimating sulfur mineralization potential in soils amended with poultry litter or inorganic fertilizer

NICOLAS WYNGAARD; MIGUEL CABRERA

BIOLOGY AND FERTILITY OF SOILS

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2015

0178-2762

The effect of long-term (more than 10 years) application of poultry litter (PL) or inorganic fertilizer (IF) on sulfur (S) mineralization potential (So) was evaluated using four different soils (Delaware 1, Delaware 2, Iowa and Georgia). Also, different methods to estimate S availability (extraction with KCl, NaHCO3 and KCl after a wetting-drying cycle, aerobic incubations for 7 and 14 days, and NH4+ quantification after an anaerobic incubation) were compared to So. When compared to long-term application of IF, long term-application of PL generated an increase in total soil S ranging from 0 to 0.14 g kg-1, which was positively associated with the soil clay content (R2=0.98), and resulted in an increase in So ranging from 0 to 21.2 g kg-1. From the evaluated methods to estimate So only three of them were significantly (p<0.05) correlated to So: aerobic incubation for 7 days (r=0.85), extraction with NaHCO3 (r=0.85), and nitrogen anaerobic incubation (r=0.99). Based on the reduced time and labor involved and in their capacity to distinguish between treatments, we recommend further use and further evaluation of the last two methods as estimators of So.