Accumulation of soil nitrogen and carbon under a Desodium uncinatum pasture

Abstract

There was a marked accumulation of soil nitrogen and carbon at the soil surface after five or six years' growth of a fertilized Desmodium uncinatum pasture on a lateritic podzolic soil at Beerwah, in south-eastern Queensland. With adequate superphosphate (5-6 cwt an acre initially, and annual dressings of 2 cwt an acre), 90-100 lb of nitrogen an acre a year were added to the soil-plant system by this pasture.