Nitrification potentials of Chinese tea orchard soils and their adjacentwasteland and forest soils
XUE Dong , GAO Yangmei , YAO Huaiying , HUANG Changyong
DOI:
Received November 11, 2008,Revised March 09, 2009, Accepted , Available online
Volume 21,2009,Pages 1225-1229
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To investigate the nitrifying activities of di erent soil types, soil samples collected from 8-, 50- and 90-year old tea orchards, the
adjacent wasteland, and 90-year old forest were measured for their nitrification potentials using the conventional soil incubation and the
liquid incubation method. Among di erent soil types, the nitrification potential of soil in tea orchards was higher than that of wasteland
and forest soils. The slurry shaken liquid incubation method was confirmed to be more accurate and have reliable results than the
soil incubation. Interestingly, experimental result revealed that the generally applied pH value of 7.2 for the liquid media was not the
optimal pH for these acid soils with a strong bu er capacity. This suggested that tea orchard soils may have nitrifiers requiring pHneutral
condition for the best activity. Our data also showed that treatment with the commonly used nitrogen fertilizer urea significantly
improved nitrification potential of the soils; such enhancement e ect was stronger on all of three tea orchard soils than on wasteland
and forest soils, and also stronger on the younger (8- and 50-year old) tea orchard soils than on the older one (90-year old).
