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Abundance of 13 C and 15 N in emmer, spelt and naked barley grown on differently manured soils: towards a method for identifying past manuring practice
Author(s) -
Kanstrup Marie,
Thomsen Ingrid K.,
Andersen Astrid J.,
Bogaard Amy,
Christensen Bent T.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/rcm.5176
Subject(s) - straw , manure , agronomy , nutrient , chemistry , green manure , biomass (ecology) , soil water , biology , ecology , organic chemistry
The shortage of plant‐available nutrients probably constrained prehistoric cereal cropping but there is very little direct evidence relating to the history of ancient manuring. It has been shown that the long‐term addition of animal manure elevates the δ 15 N value of soil and of modern crops grown on the soil. We have examined the δ 15 N and δ 13 C values of soil and of the grain and straw fractions of three ancient cereal types grown in unmanured, PK amended and cattle manured plots of the Askov long‐term field experiment. Manure increased biomass yields and the δ 15 N values of soil and of grain and straw fractions of the ancient cereal types; differences in δ 15 N between unmanured and PK treatments were insignificant. The offset in straw and grain δ 15 N due to manure averaged 7.9 and 8.8 ‰, respectively, while the soil offset was 1.9 ‰. The soil and biomass δ 13 C values were not affected by nutrient amendments. Grain weights differed among cereal types but increased in the order: unmanured, PK, and animal manure. The grain and straw total‐N concentration was generally not affected by manure addition. Our study suggests that long‐term application of manure to permanently cultivated sites would have provided a substantial positive effect on cereals grown in early agriculture and will have left a significant N isotopic imprint on soil, grains and straw. We suggest that the use of animal manure can be identified by the 15 N abundance in remains of ancient cereals (e.g. charred grains) from archaeological sites and by growing test plants on freshly exposed palaeosols. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.