Abstract
An ideal and efficient nitrogen (N) recommendation for precision fertilization (PF) should account for potential soil mineralizable N. This study aimed at estimating management zone (MZ) specific soil N mineralization rate (SNMR) of unamended soils. A total of 76 soil samples were collected from 21 MZs across 5 fields. An aerobic laboratory incubation was conducted under controlled conditions for two months with seven sub-sampling events. N mineralization was assessed as net increase in soil mineral N over time. Results indicated a considerable variation in mineralized soil N (9.12–41.93 mg kg−1 soil) across fields. Highest and lowest net SNMRs were 0.50 and 0.0004 mg kg−1 soil day−1, respectively. SNMRs significantly differed across MZs in three fields, while in the other two fields no significant differences were observed. In turn, 3 of 34 MZ-pairs differed (marginally) significantly (padj = 0.02–0.09) from one another, namely in MZ pairs with high variation in soil particle sizes. MZ-specific SNMRs were mostly positively correlated to pH (0.20–1.00), total N (0.12–0.99), soil mineral N (0.11–1.00) and sand (0.34–0.99), negatively correlated with clay (− 1.00 to − 0.11) and correlations with SOC were mixed (0.41 to − 0.62). This along with the support from regression analysis corroborated the existing knowledge that TN is a better predictor of mineralization than SOC. While there were only few statistically significant differences in SNMR amongst MZ per field despite mathematical differences, still incorporating MZ-specific SNMR in management decisions will be crucial in optimizing the N use efficiency in precision farming, and along with other management actions, lead to more environmentally friendly PF schemes.
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Acknowledgements
Authors acknowledge the financial support received from the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO) for Odysseus I SiTeMan Project (Nr. G0F9216N).
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Funding was provided by Vlaamse Overheid (G0F9216N).
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FYR: conceptualization, methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, visualization, writing—original draft; MAM: formal analysis, visualization, writing—review & editing; SDN: methodology, writing—review & editing, supervision; AMM: conceptualization, writing—review & editing, supervision, funding acquisition, project administration.
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Appendices
Appendix 1:Soil N mineralization data across the fields.
Appendix 2:Analysis of variance soil N mineralization rate across management zones.
Fields | ANOVA | Duncan’s PostHoc Test | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sources | DF | SS | MS | Fvalue | pvalue | Source | MD | CI | padj | |
Dal | MZ | 3 | 0.031 | 0.010 | 1.173 | 0.373 | MZ 3–2 | − 0.129 | − 0.315 to 0.058 | 0.153 |
Residuals | 9 | 0.080 | 0.009 | MZ 4–2 | − 0.113 | − 0.284 to 0.057 | 0.168 | |||
MZ 1–2 | − 0.103 | − 0.278 to 0.071 | 0.213 | |||||||
MZ 4–3 | 0.015 | − 0.148 to 0.179 | 0.835 | |||||||
MZ 1–3 | 0.025 | − 0.157 to 0.207 | 0.762 | |||||||
MZ 1–4 | 0.009 | − 0.154 to 0.173 | 0.895 | |||||||
Gingelomse | MZ | 3 | 0.036 | 0.012 | 1.923 | 0.190 | MZ 4–2 | − 0.096 | − 0.226 to 0.033 | 0.129 |
Residuals | 10 | 0.062 | 0.006 | MZ 3–2 | − 0.136 | − 0.279 to 0.008 | 0.061 | |||
MZ 1–2 | − 0.060 | − 0.194 to 0.073 | 0.339 | |||||||
MZ 3–4 | − 0.039 | − 0.173 to 0.094 | 0.526 | |||||||
MZ 1–4 | 0.036 | − 0.098 to 0.169 | 0.562 | |||||||
MZ 1–3 | 0.075 | − 0.074 to 0.225 | 0.288 | |||||||
Grootland | MZ | 3 | 0.104 | 0.034 | 2.713 | 0.096 | MZ 4–3 | − 0.130 | − 0.329 to 0.068 | 0.177 |
Residuals | 11 | 0.140 | 0.013 | MZ 2–3 | − 0.038 | − 0.241 to 0.165 | 0.686 | |||
MZ 1–3 | 0.083 | − 0.098 to 0.264 | 0.335 | |||||||
MZ 2–4 | 0.092 | − 0.098 to 0.281 | 0.308 | |||||||
MZ 1–4 | 0.213 | 0.035 to 0.392 | 0.023 | |||||||
MZ 1–2 | 0.121 | − 0.068 to 0.311 | 0.188 | |||||||
Kroky | MZ | 4 | 0.039 | 0.009 | 1.211 | 0.347 | MZ 4–2 | 0.126 | − 0.045 to 0.296 | 0.139 |
Residuals | 15 | 0.124 | 0.008 | MZ 3–2 | 0.112 | − 0.037 to 0.259 | 0.131 | |||
MZ 5–2 | 0.072 | − 0.076 to 0.219 | 0.316 | |||||||
MZ 1–2 | 0.131 | − 0.024 to 0.287 | 0.092 | |||||||
MZ 3–4 | − 0.014 | − 0.156 to 0.127 | 0.835 | |||||||
MZ 5–4 | − 0.054 | − 0.209 to 0.101 | 0.476 | |||||||
MZ 1–4 | 0.006 | − 0.136 to 0.147 | 0.932 | |||||||
MZ 5–3 | − 0.039 | − 0.169 to 0.090 | 0.527 | |||||||
MZ 1–3 | 0.019 | − 0.109 to 0.148 | 0.748 | |||||||
MZ 1–5 | 0.059 | − 0.081 to 0.199 | 0.384 | |||||||
Fabrieke | MZ | 3 | 0.002 | 0.001 | 0.477 | 0.705 | MZ 3–2 | 0.001 | − 0.067 to 0.069 | 0.986 |
Residuals | 10 | 0.014 | 0.001 | MZ 1–2 | 0.025 | − 0.042 to 0.091 | 0.431 | |||
MZ 4–2 | − 0.004 | − 0.068 to 0.059 | 0.883 | |||||||
MZ 1–3 | 0.024 | − 0.039 to 0.088 | 0.421 | |||||||
MZ 4–3 | − 0.005 | − 0.071 to 0.062 | 0.873 | |||||||
MZ 4–1 | − 0.029 | − 0.092 to 0.034 | 0.332 | |||||||
The following box plot is the representation of significance of variance of N mineralization rate for all fields.
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Ruma, F.Y., Munnaf, M.A., De Neve, S. et al. Management zone-specific N mineralization rate estimation in unamended soil. Precision Agric 24, 1906–1931 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-023-10023-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-023-10023-x