Plant Soil Environ., 2012, 58(12):557-560 | DOI: 10.17221/575/2012-PSE

Modification of the standard method for determination of non-exchangeable NH4-N in soil

P. Beuters, H.W. Scherer
Department of Plant Nutrition, Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

It is well accepted that non-exchangeable NH4-N plays an important role in the N dynamics of arable soils. However the widely-used Silva/Bremner method for determining this N fraction is very time consuming and the use of the hazardous hydrofluoric acid (HF) is indispensable. In the modification the use of HF is avoided and the quantity of analysed samples per unit of time could be increased by a factor of 2.5. After pretreating soil samples with KOBr to destroy soil organic matter soil samples are dried and the content of non-exchangeable NH4-N is measured using a CNS analyzer. The results of the analysis of 3 out of 4 different soils show no significant differences between both methods.

Keywords: fixed ammonium; nitrogen; clay minerals; hydrofluoric acid; KOBr

Published: December 31, 2012  Show citation

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Beuters P, Scherer HW. Modification of the standard method for determination of non-exchangeable NH4-N in soil. Plant Soil Environ. 2012;58(12):557-560. doi: 10.17221/575/2012-PSE.
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