Bacteriological studies on the mineralization of organic nitrogen in paddy soils

Abstract

In this report we studied the effects of mechanical grinding of paddy soils on nitrogen mineralization and bacterial number when soils were incubated under a submerged condition after grinding. Nitrogen mineralization was increased by grinding soil samples as compared with those without grinding. The value of (Nd-Nu)/Nu, where Nd is the amount of ammonia-nitrogen formed by incubation of disrupted samples and Nu those of the undisrupted soils, was in good correlation with clay/humus ratio. Although significant difference was not observed between the number of aerobic bacteria with undisrupted and disrupted soil samples, higher anaerobic bacterial numbers were found with disrupted than with undisrupted ones. A significant correlation was also obtained between the amounts of nitrogen mineralization increased by the grinding of soil and the numbers of anaerobic bacteria.