Fate of urine nitrogen through a volcanic vadose zone
G. F. Barkle A D , R. Stenger B and Th. Wöhling B C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Aqualinc Research Ltd, Hamilton, New Zealand, Private Bag 14-041, Enderley, Hamilton 3252, New Zealand.
B Lincoln Agritech, Private Bag 3062, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand.
C Water and Earth System Science Competence Cluster (WESS), University of Tübingen, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz, 72074 Tübingen, Germany.
D Corresponding author. Email: G.Barkle@Aqualinc.co.nz
Soil Research 52(7) 658-670 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR13282
Submitted: 30 September 2013 Accepted: 3 June 2014 Published: 10 October 2014
Abstract
To investigate the fate of nitrogen (N) from urine, dairy cow urine was amended with bromide (Br) and chloride (Cl), and applied onto a loamy sand soil with an underlying vadose zone of gritty coarse sands and pumice fragments with groundwater at ~5.5 m depth. Textural changes and hydrophobicity resulted in heterogeneous flow and high variability in the Cl, Br and N masses captured. Three forms of N derived from the urine, organic-N (org-N), ammonium-N (NH4-N) and nitrate-N (NO3-N), were measured at 0.4 m depth. At 1.0 m depth, effectively all measured N was NO3-N. At 4.2 m, the mass of recovered N (average 33% of applied N, s.d. 21%), although solely speciated as NO3-N, was not significantly different from that at 0.4 m (average 24.5% of applied N, s.d. 0.1%), suggesting that no substantial assimilation of NO3-N had occurred in this vadose zone. Below the interface of the Taupo Ignimbrite and the Palaeosol at 4.2 m depth, recoveries of the Cl and Br tracers were negligible. In addition, the isotopic signatures (δ18O and δ15N) of the nitrate were different and the NO3-N concentrations were higher than in the upper vadose zone. These results all suggest that the Palaeosol was acting as a hydraulically limiting layer resulting in lateral unsaturated flow occurring at this interface. The fact that no nitrate assimilation was observed in this field study, despite previous laboratory studies showing substantial assimilative capacity, underlines that that the nitrate assimilative capacity in the vadose zone is a function of both hydrological and biogeochemical factors.
Additional keywords: AETL, chloride tracer, hydraulic barrier, lateral movement.
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