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Effects of urease and nitrification inhibitors on soil N, nitrifier abundance and activity in a sandy loam soil

Fu, Qingling; Abadie, Ma�der; Blaud, Aimeric; Carswell, Alison; Misselbrook, Tom H.; Clark, Ian M.; Hirsch, Penny R.

Authors

Qingling Fu

Ma�der Abadie

Alison Carswell

Tom H. Misselbrook

Ian M. Clark

Penny R. Hirsch



Abstract

Inhibitors of urease and ammonia monooxygenase can limit the rate of conversion of urea to ammonia and ammonia to nitrate, respectively, potentially improving N fertilizer use efficiency and reducing gaseous losses. Winter wheat grown on a sandy soil in the UK was treated with urea fertilizer with the urease inhibitor N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBPT), the nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide (DCD) or a combination of both. The effects on soil microbial community diversity, the abundance of genes involved in nitrification and crop yields and net N recovery were compared. The only significant effect on N-cycle genes was a transient reduction in bacterial ammonia monooxygenase abundance following DCD application. However, overall crop yields and net N recovery were significantly lower in the urea treatments compared with an equivalent application of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, and significantly less for urea with DCD than the other urea treatments.

Citation

Fu, Q., Abadie, M., Blaud, A., Carswell, A., Misselbrook, T. H., Clark, I. M., & Hirsch, P. R. (2020). Effects of urease and nitrification inhibitors on soil N, nitrifier abundance and activity in a sandy loam soil. Biology and Fertility of Soils, 56(2), 185-194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-019-01411-5

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 22, 2019
Online Publication Date Nov 25, 2019
Publication Date 2020-02
Deposit Date Dec 5, 2019
Publicly Available Date Dec 5, 2019
Journal Biology and Fertility of Soils
Print ISSN 0178-2762
Electronic ISSN 1432-0789
Publisher BMC
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 56
Issue 2
Pages 185-194
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-019-01411-5
Keywords Urea fertilizer, Urease inhibitor, Nitrification inhibitor, Arable soil, Soil microbial diversity, Nitrification genes
Public URL http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2373783

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Effects Of Urease And Nitrification Inhibitors On Soil N, Nitrifier Abundance And Activity In A Sandy Loam Soil (519 Kb)
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).





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