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Recycling Soil Nitrate Nitrogen by Amending Agricultural Lands with Oily Food Waste
Author(s) -
Rashid M. T.,
Voroney R. P.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of environmental quality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1537-2537
pISSN - 0047-2425
DOI - 10.2134/jeq2003.1881
Subject(s) - leaching (pedology) , mineralization (soil science) , fertilizer , nitrate , soil water , environmental science , nitrogen , randomized block design , agronomy , cover crop , chemistry , soil science , agroforestry , biology , organic chemistry
With current agricultural practices the amounts of fertilizer N applied are frequently more than the amounts removed by the crop. Excessive N application may result in short‐term accumulation of nitrate nitrogen (NO 3 –N) in soil, which can easily be leached from the root zone and into the ground water. A management practice suggested for conserving accumulated NO 3 –N is the application of oily food waste (FOG; fat + oil + greases) to agricultural soils. A two‐year field study (1995–1996 and 1996–1997) was conducted at Elora Research Center (43°38′ N, 80° W; 346 m above mean sea level), University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada to determine the effect of FOG application in fall and spring on soil NO 3 –N contents and apparent N immobilization–mineralization of soil N in the 0‐ to 60‐cm soil layer. The experiment was planned under a randomized complete block design with four replications. An unamended control and a reference treatment [winter wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) cover crop] were included in the experiment to compare the effects of fall and spring treatment of oily food waste on soil NO 3 –N contents and apparent N immobilization–mineralization. Oily food waste application at 10 Mg ha −1 in the fall decreased soil NO 3 –N by immobilization and conserved 47 to 56 kg NO 3 –N ha −1 , which would otherwise be subject to leaching. Nitrogen immobilized due to FOG application in the fall was subsequently remineralized by the time of fertilizer N sidedress, whereas no net mineralization was observed in spring‐amended plots at the same time.