Effect of Different Carbonaceous Compounds on the Transformation of Soil Nutrients. I. Immobilization and Mineralization of Applied Nitrogen

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Abstract
The decomposition of different carbonaceous compounds and their comparative effect on the immobilization and mineralization of applied fertilizer nitrogen in soil were investigated by an incubation experiment at 30°C. The data showed that all the glucose oxidised readily within 10 days of incubation and immobilized more than 85% of the applied nitrogen; thereafter, mineralization started again faster than with the other four carbonaceous compounds. Starch behaved similarly but had significantly lower values than the glucose-containing treatments. However, in the cases of cellulose and crude fibre, decomposition and immobilization proceeded slowly and reached a maximum at 40 and 50 days of incubation respectively. Cellulose per unit of its carbon oxidation had the highest capacity for immobilization of applied nitrogen, followed by crude fibre, starch and glucose carbon oxidation. Lignin was not found to be effective at all and remained almost unchanged in the soil.