Mineral nitrogen in soils undergoing irrigated rice-upland crop rotations

Abstract

Surface soil (0-150 mm) mineral nitrogen levels were monitored in field plots undergoing rice-wheat-wheat and rice-fallow rotations to study the effects of rice growing on the mineral nitrogen content of soils for subsequent crops. Ammonium nitrogen accumulated in the soils during the first 3 weeks of flooding of the rice crop, reaching 54 mg N kg-1 in a grey clay, and 23 mg N kg-1 in a transitional red-brown earth. Thereafter, ammonium nitrogen decreased so that at the time of drainage the soils contained between 2 and 6 mg N kg-1. Nitrate levels during the flooding period fluctuated between 1 and 7 mg N kg-1. In each subsequent fallowing period, nitrate levels increased so that there was approximately 20 mg N kg-1 as nitrate present during the early growth stages of the post-rice crops. However, at the harvests of each post-rice crop, nitrate nitrogen levels had decreased to between 1 and 7 mg N kg-'. Fluctuations in nitrate levels were interpreted in terms of gains from mineralization and nitrification and losses by crop uptake, although leaching and denitrification during periods of heavy rainfall or irrigations could not be assessed. Ammonium levels in the post-rice period increased in the months of October and November when fallowed, but other fluctuations showed no consistent trends. Nitrite levels were low (< 0.6 mg N kg-1) throughout the experiments. Total mineral nitrogen levels during the early growth stages of the crops grown after the rice corresponded to between 31 and 95 kg N ha-1 in the surface 0-150 mm of soil. It was concluded that in the rotations studied, lowland rice cropping did not lead to depletion of mineral nitrogen to such an extent that it could be implicated as a factor in the poor growth of upland crops grown in rotation with lowland rice.