Evaluating chemical and physical indices of nitrogen mineralization capacity with an unequivocal reference

Abstract

After decades of searching for a rapid method to estimate the N mineralization capacity of soil, there is still no consistent recommendation. It is legitimate to examine the causes for the often-conflicting results in literature. The efficacy of various references that have been used as benchmarks for assessing chemical and physical indices in the literature is critically reviewed in this paper. Gross N mineralization and consumption during waterlogged and aerobic incubations were estimated in a wide range of soils. It was found that equivalent to 17 to 90 and 23 to 59% of the mineralized N was consumed during the waterlogged and aerobic incubations, respectively. As net N production rate re..