Nitrogen turnover in soil - flip sides: can your land management approach increase nitrogen use efficiency?

[Looking@soil]

Ammonium in soil undergoes rapid transformation into nitrate due to the natural activity of several soil microorganisms guilds (nitrifiers) through a process call nitrification - while plants can much easily uptake nitrate, it is also a highly soluble form of nitrogen that is promptly lost to the environment through runoff and gaseous emissions. Currently, 50% of the nitrogen applied as fertilizer is lost to the environment due to nitrification. Thus, slowing down nitrification can provide our crops with more time to uptake the nitrogen applied as fertilizer. We are working on introducing the "biological nitrification inhibition" trait in modern wheat - meanwhile, our measurements of nitrification rates on soils provided by the Root Rangers 2024 have provided an intriguing contrast across the different farming approaches.
In this figure, we observe the differences in nitrification rate (slope) before and after the application of fertilizer (or equivalent treatment) across the different sites.
To measure these rates, we use a nitrate-selective probe that reads nitrate concentration in soil over time: https://edt.co.uk/product/nitrate-flow-plus-combination-ise

Land management clearly has a significant impact on nitrogen turnover in soil - which approach could result in an optimum use of the nitrogen-fertilizer by a given crop?

 

[bactosoil]

are you looking at also slowing down the natural activity of microorganisms nitrifiers too ?

 

[Looking@soil]

Hey bactosoil - we are indeed exploring crops (wheat) and practices that can control and slow down nitrification in soil. We will be sharing some results later this autumn on the microbiome fingerprint of the soils sent by the Root Rangers.

 

[Looking@soil]

Have you been thinking about this post question? The answer seems to be a clear "yes" - the figure below shows significantly lower nitrification rates (PNR) for soils under organic and regenerative management compare to conventional farming (wheat cropping) before and after application of fertilizer. Thanks to our TRUTH Root Rangers for providing these fantastic sets of samples!

Very shortly we will be comparing these results to the abundance of nitrifier communities in soil ... stay tuned for upcoming updates.

 

[DrDunc]

What you selling?

Consultancy words telling us to increase soil organic matter, or the next latest wondrous chemical?

 

[Looking@soil]

What you selling?

Consultancy words telling us to increase soil organic matter, or the next latest wondrous chemical?

??

 

[bactosoil]

The answer seems to be a clear "yes" - the figure below shows significantly lower nitrification rates (PNR) for soils under organic and regenerative management compare to conventional farming (wheat cropping) before and after application of fertilizer

Surely its obvious that when a soil is not over stimulated and where bacterial populations are more in balance you will get less nitrification as found in organic and regenerative soils , if you over stimulate a soil with nutrients bacteria will have a field day and consume as much as it can and grow in numbers hugely , do you have any varying zonal layer data for bacterial spikes in conventional soil as opposed to organic/regen soil ?

 

[Rooney]

Do you have N application rates or times linked to the charts above, regen typically uses less N overall so may be expected to have less emissions. We follow regen and use less N per application but more often (applications) as well as reduction in total N. Some N is foliar application which we hope would have less emissions as that the whole point.