Mineralisation of nitrogen from an incorporated catch crop at low temperatures: experiment and simulation

The release of nitrogen from incorporated catch crop material in winter is strongly influenced by soil temperatures. A laboratory experiment was carried out to investigate this influence in the range of 1-15 °C. Samples of sandy soil or a mixture of sandy soil with rye shoots were incubated at 1-5-10-15 °C, and samples of sandy soil with rye roots were incubated at 5-10-15 °C. Concentrations of N_min (NH₄ ⁺-N and NO₃ ^--N) were measured after 0-1-2-4-7-10 weeks for the sandy soil and the sandy soil:rye shoot mixture, and after 0-2-7-10 weeks for the sandy soil:rye root mixture. At 1 °C, 20% of total organic N in the crop material had been mineralised after ten weeks, indicating that mineralisation at low temperatures is not negligible. Maximum mineralisation occurred at 15 °C; after ten weeks, it was 39% of total applied organic nitrogen from shoot and 35% from root material. The time course of mineralisation was calculated using an exponential decay function. It was found that the influence of temperature in the range 1-15 °C could be described by the Arrhenius equation, stating a linear increase of ln(k) with T^-1, k being the relative mineralisation rate in day^-1 and T the temperature (°C). A simulation model was developed in which decomposition, mineralisation and nitrification were modelled as one step processes, following first order kinetics. The relative decomposition rate was influenced by soil temperature and soil moisture content, and the mineralisation of N was calculated from the decomposition of C, the C to N ratio of the catch crop material and the C to N ratio of the microbial biomass. The model was validated first with the results of the experiment. The model was further validated with the results of an independent field experiment, with temperatures fluctuating between 3 and 20 °C. The simulated time course of mineralisation differed significantly from the experimental values, due to an underestimation of the mineralisation during the first weeks of incubation.