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THE BIOLOGICAL DECOMPOSITION OF PLANT MATERIALS PART VIII. THE AVAILABILITY OF THE NITROGEN OF FUNGAL TISSUES
Author(s) -
NORMAN A. GEOFFREY
Publication year - 1933
Publication title -
annals of applied biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1744-7348
pISSN - 0003-4746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7348.1933.tb07432.x
Subject(s) - nitrification , nitrogen , ammonium , straw , decomposition , biology , cellulose , ammonia , fungus , botany , soil water , environmental chemistry , agronomy , chemistry , biochemistry , ecology , organic chemistry
SUMMARY.1 Various aspects of the availability of the nitrogen, of fungal tissue to micro‐organisms have been investigated, with particular reference to the influence of the C/N ratio of the material. 2 Fungal tissue was found to be as suitable a source of nitrogen as ammonium salts and nitrates for the decomposition of straw both by a mixed soil flora and by pure cultures of certain fungi. 3 The liberation of ammonia in sand culture from fungal tissue by pure cultures of reputedly active ammonifiers was measured. 4 The nitrification in soils of a number of samples of fungus tissue was compared with that of artificial mixtures of equal C/N ratio built up from glucose, cellulose and straw, each with added inorganic nitrogen. 5 A very clear correlation was found between the C/N ratio of the fungal material and the nitrogen nitrified. In one series in hill‐side soil nitrification increased from 42 to 80 per cent, in 6 months as the ratio decreased from 15.8 to 5.5; in another, from 20 to 75 per cent, as the ratio decreased from 17 to 7. 6 No evidence was found for the existence of a very resistant and unnitrifiable residue from fungal tissue as claimed by some workers, and incomplete nitrification is probably due to the attainment of biological equilibrium or of a state in which change is very slow.