Study of the Potentially Mineralized Nitrogen Content and Nitrogen Supply by Soil Incubation Method in a Long-Term Field Experiment in East Hungary

The formation and fate of soluble nitrogen (N) forms and their response to organic-matter mineralization is not obvious yet, and results are often inconsistent despite intensive research. The available N supply of the soil is very important for plant nutrition and environmentally sound N fertilization. The determination of actual N supply is very important for sustainable agriculture in Hungary, especially in acidic sandy soils, which are very sensitive to environmental effects and inefficient human treatment. Therefore, the aim of this article is to provide further information about N mineralization processes and organic-mineral interactions of soil. To establish the potentially mineralized N content and available N supply of soil, a biological (incubation) method was carried out an acidic brown forest soil of the Nyrlugos long-term field experiment in Hungary. The incubation was carried out in the laboratory with differently treated soils of the long-term field experiment to investigate the effect of treatments on N mineralization processes of soil. The incubation period was 16 weeks long. The pH and the easily soluble mineralized and organic N fractions of soil were measured periodically from leached solution (0.01 M calcium chloride; CaCl2). The leaching process was repeated after 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, and 16 weeks. The potentially mineralized N content of soil and the actual rate of N mineralization were calculated from periodically collected data. The results of the incubation method can be summarized as follows: the kinetics of incubation of 0.01 M CaCl2 soluble organic N is similar to mineral N; 0.01 M CaCl2-soluble N fractions were mainly in inorganic forms in the incubation period but the content of the organic form was significant too; and the mineralization rate is greater where the microbiological activity of the soil is expressed and the soil properties are more favored as a result of applied treatments.