A number of investigations have shown the effects of certain nitrogen fertilizers on the nitrification process and it has generally been noted that nitrates would stimulate the production of nitrates. The work of Coleman, Brown and Gowda and Greaves may be referred to in this connection

Brown, P. E.

Pendleton, Ray A.

Smith, F. B.

English

Name not available

The Effects of Some Nitrogen Fertilizers on Nitrification

University of Northern Iowa

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science Volume 36 Annual Issue Article 14 1929 The Effects of Some Nitrogen Fertilizers on Nitrification Ray A. Pendleton Iowa State College P. E. Brown Iowa State College F. B. Smith Iowa State College Copyright ©1929 Iowa Academy of Science, Inc. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias Recommended Citation Pendleton, Ray A.; Brown, P. E.; and Smith, F. B. (1929) "The Effects of Some Nitrogen Fertilizers on Nitrification," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 36(1), 99-103. Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol36/iss1/14 This Research is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa Academy of Science at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science by an authorized editor of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact scholarworks@uni.edu. THE EFFECTS OF SOME NITROGEN FERTILIZERS ON NITRIFICATION RAY A. PENDLETON, P. E. BROWN AND F. B. SMITH A number of investigations have shown the effects of certain nitrogen fertilizers on the nitrification process and it has generally been noted that nitrates would stimulate the production of nitrates. The work of Coleman,1 Brown and· Gowda 2 and Greaves 3 may be referred to in this connetion. In order to determine what the effect of several nitrogenous materials would be when applied to a typical Carrington loam, the following experiment was carried out in the greenhouse. On March 26, 1928, a quantity of soil was secured and placed in pots in the greenhouse. The soils received the following treat-ments: GRAMS POUNDS POUNDS POT No. FERTILIZER USED PER PoT PER ACRE NITROGEN PER ACRE 1 and 2 Sodium Nitrate 0.625 100.0 15.24 3 and 4 Ammonium Sulfate 0.467 74.7 15.24 5 and 6 Urea 0.207 33.1 15.24 7 and 8 Leunasalpeter 0.3488 55.8 15.24 9 and IO N itrophoska 0.5776 92.4 15.24 11 and 12 Check ----- ---- ----Where convenient, the fertilize.rs were applied in solution, other-wise they were well mixed with the dry soil. The soil in all the pots was made up to and maintained at the optimum, 26 percent moisture. Samples for analysis were taken from each pot during the first month of the experiment at weekly intervals and later at more infrequent intervals until July 12, when the last sampling was made. Determinations were made for the nitrate production, and the nitrifying power. 1 Coleman, D. A. 1917. The Influence of Sodium Nitrate Upon Nitrogen Trans-formations in Soils with Special Reference to Its Availability and That of Other Nitro-genous Fertilizers. Soil Science 4: 345. · 2 Brown, P. E. and Gowda, R. N. 1924. The Effect of Certain Fertilizers on Nitri-fication. J our. Amer. Soc. Agron. 16 : 13 7. 3 Greaves, J. E. 1916. The Influence of Salts on the Bacterial Activities of the Soil. Soil Science 2: 443. 99 1Pendleton et al.: The Effects of Some Nitrogen Fertilizers on NitrificationPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1929100 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE NITRATE PRODUCTION The nitrate accumulation in the soils is shown in table I. As there was no leaching from the pots and probably no denitrifica-tion, whatever increases occurred in the nitrate content of the soil would be shown quite clearly by the data. The average nitrate content of the sodium nitrate treated soils was approximately Table J -Nitrate Production in Carrington Loam in Pots in the Green-house with Various Nitrogen Fertilizers T Po No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 MGM. NI'.l'RA'I'E NI1'ROGEN PER 100 GRAMS SOIL AT DIIIFEREN1' DATES OF SAMPT,ING INCREASE IN LAST AVER. FOR SAMPI,ING OVER MAR. APRIL APRIL APR fl~ }UNE Jur.Y Six DE- ORIGINAL CbN'l'EN1' 27 7 13 24 1 12 '!'ERMIN- lNDIVID-A'I'IONS AVERAGE UAL ------ 5.72 6.67 8.80 5.04 2.40 4.28 4.39 6.40 4.99 2.65 4.61 3.94 6.00 5.82 6.24 4.88 3.59 2.57 3.50 2.22 3.75 3.40 4.38 3.30 1.81 3.69 2.33 3.97 3.12 4.73 5.65 7.90 4.61 5.57 2.94 4.60 3.52 4.96 4.70 7.14 4.64 4.20 3.85 2.75 4.05 3.62 3.75 4.25 6.25 4.11 3.50 2.55 4.44 3.91 4.65 7.14 5.80 4.75 3.25 3.93 2.12 4.22 3.79 4.80 6.00 6.74 4.61 4.62 2.20 2.56 4.00 5.27 5.44 6.82 4.38 4.62 4.78 2.84 3.80 3.06 3.85 4.27 7.79 4.27 4.95 2.04 2.61 2.48 3.55 3.85 6.18 3.45 4.14 2.80 2.76 2.46 2.56 2.77 2.99 4.23 2.96 1.47 trebled during the period from March 27 to July 12. This treat-ment brought about a larger increase in nitrate content than any of the others. The nitrophoska treatment, (pots 9 and 10) gave the second largest increase. The untreated soils contained the smallest amou11ts of nitrates at each sampling and showed the smallest increase in uitra tes. Averaging the results secured from the duplicate pots, the urea and leunasalpeter had about equal effects on the nitrate accumulation and the ammonium sulfate had the least influence. The differences between the results for the duplicate soils were rather large in some cases; the greatest differ-ence being shown between the two ammonium sulfate treated soils. As the nitrogen added in the fertilizers was only 7.67 ppm., and was, therefore, rather insignificant when compared to the increase in nitrates, it is evident that the various nitrogenous materials brought about a distinct stimulation in the nitrification of the soil nitrogen. Averaging the results for the duplicate soils, this in-crease ·amounted to 2.19 mgm. of nitrogen per 100 grams of soil in the case of the nitrate treated soils; 0.89 mgm. for the am-monium sulfate treatment; 1.05 mgm. for the urea treatmet; 1. 13 2Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. 36 [1929], No. 1, Art. 14https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol36/iss1/14EFFECT OF NITROGEN FERTILIZERS ON NITRIFICATION 101 mgm. for the leunasalpeter treatment; and 1.98 mgm. for the nitrophoska treatment. Assuming an efficiency rating of 100 for sodium nitrate in stimulating nitrification in the soil, nitrophoska would rate 90.5 leunasalpeter 51.7, urea 47.9 and ammonium sul-fate 40.6. The nitrate content of the soils at the second sampling on April 7, indicates that sodium nitrate, urea and leunasalpeter had about equal effect on nitrate accumulation, while nitrophoska had the least influence. The nitrate content of the soils at the third sampling on April 13, shows a slight drop in nitrate accumulation for all treatments except the nitrophoska and the checks. These soils show only a slight gain. With the exception of this unaccountable depression in the nitrate content on April 13, all treatments gave a gradual in-crease in nitrate content up to the last sampling on July 12. The average nitrate production with the various treatments for the six determinations was 4.96 mgm. of nitrogen per 100 grams of soil for the sodium nitrate treatment; 4.68 mgm. for the leuna-salpeter treatment; 4.37 mgm. for the urea treatment; 4.32 mgm. for the nitrophoska treatment; 3.95 mgm. for the ammonium sul-fate treatment; and 3.20 mgm. for the checks. Based on these data, the nitrate of soda was superior to any of the other treat-ments, with leunasalpeter a close second, nitrophoska and urea about equal and ammonium sulfate least. effective. However, it would seem that the data based on the increase due to the fertiliz-ers are most accurate as a rating basis. NITRI:FICATION The data secured in the determination of the nitrifying power of the soils are given in table II. At the first two samplings, three series of tests were run; ( 1) with soil alone, (2) with 30 mgm. of nitrogen as ammonium sulfate and (3) with 30 mgm. of nitrogen as ammonium sulfate plus 210 mgm. of lime. At the third sam-pling series ( 1) and ( 2) were used. In the test using soil alone, the data secured at the first sampling showed the highest nitrifying power for the sodium nitrate treat-ment followed closely by the nitrophoska treatment. The ammoni-um sulfate treatment stimulated the nitrifying power the least. At both the June and July samplings, there was no regularity in the results using the soil alone. Possibly this was due to toxic effects from the nitrate accumulated or to nitrate assimilation. As with the soil alone, the highest nitrifying power in the test 3Pendleton et al.: The Effects of Some Nitrogen Fertilizers on NitrificationPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1929Table II -Nitrification Tests in Carrington Loam in Pots in the Greenhouse with Varioits Fertilizer Treatments MGM. N1TROGEN NITRIFTED PER 100 GM. Son, BY DIFFERENT METHODS USED APRII~ 7-25 DAYS INCUBATION Jum: 1-23 DAYS INCUBATION JULY 13-21 DAYS INCUBATION PoT No. (NH) SO ) (NH.)2SO. (NH,),SO. SOIL AIONE l (NH.),SO. SoIL ALONE ' 2 ' + CaCO, SOIL ALONE: (NH,),SO. + CaCOa · + caco. 1 2.42 1 i.90 I 18.50 1.81 9.87 23.12 -0.60 I 19.75 2 2.09 10.20 19.00 3.20 5.33 13.88 1.22 18.69 3 1.00 13.20 16.50 6.41 2.97 ----0.67 I 19.45 4 0.73 7.30 20.30 -0.90 8.55 12.25 -0.65 I 21.25 5 0.40 15.50 18.90 1.80 10.86 18.50 1.19 I 20.11 6 1.45 13.80 19.50 2.42 6.58 17.63 -0.08 19.78 7 1.09 12.35 21.10 -1.22 6.58 9.43 0.74 19.06 8 1.98 12.60 11.80 0.00 8.94 15.79 0.40 18.31 9 2.14 9.60 7.90 -0.23 6.29 13.19 0.32 16.76 10 1.50 12.20 23.80 -0.56 ----9.04 -1.08 16.10 11 1.00 10.30 14.80 1.15 10.22 0.32 17.20 12 1.09 11.75 19.35 0.58 5.08 7.78 0.39 17.43 .... ~ H 0 ~ >-n >-t::I trJ ~ ~ 0 "rj '(/) n f.rj z n trJ 4Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. 36 [1929], No. 1, Art. 14https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol36/iss1/14EFFECT OF NITROGEN FERTILIZERS ON NITRIFICATION 103 using ammonium sulfate was shown at the first sampling. There was no great difference between the effects of the various treat-ments. At the second sampling the soils showed a lower nitrifying power and wide variations among the duplicate soils but no signi-ficant difference between the various treatments. With the ammonium sulfate and calcium carbonate method, the results secured at the first and third samplings were quite similar; and a slightly lower nitrifying power was found at the second sampling. However, there was no correlation between these results and the nitrate content of the soils. Except that the check soils showed the lowest nitrifying power at the second sampling, there was no indication that the various treatments or the nitrate content of the soils were correlated with the nitrifying power of the soils as tested with ammonium sulfate and lime. · These results indicate that the additions of the various fer.tilizers all increased the nitrate content of the soils. Sodium nitrate was superior in this respect to all the other fertilizers used. The treatments also stimulated the nitrifying power of the soil, the sodium nitrate showing the greatest effect when .the soil alone was used in the tests. When ammonium sulfate was used in the test, the various fertilizers all stimulated nitrification but there were no definite differences between the var.ious materials. The results were very similar in the test where ammonium sulfate and calcium carbonate were employed. Apparently in the amounts used here all the fertilizers increased nitrification but the effects were very similar from the different materials. IowA STATE COLLEGE, AMES, IowA. 5Pendleton et al.: The Effects of Some Nitrogen Fertilizers on NitrificationPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1929

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The Effects of Some Nitrogen Fertilizers on Nitrification

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