The critical relationship between soil moisture content in the region of wilting point and the mineralization of natural soil nitrogen

Abstract

1. Laboratory incubation studies with topsoil samples of the Kikuyu red loam coffee soil have shown that active nitrification of the natural soil nitrogen stops at a soil moisture level just below the permanent wilting percentage. Ammonification of natural nitrogen in this soil does not cease at this moisture level and ammonia nitrogen accumulates substantially, although the values found at the end of the 32-day incubation period, and the rate of ammonification are significantly lower as the moisture level is decreased from ⅚ to of the permanent wilting percentage.