AMMONIACAL NITROGEN IMMOBILIZATION FROM PIG SLURRY IN SOIL UNDER REDUCED AND NO-TILLAGE

The use of pig slurry in no-tillage systems on cultural residues with high C/N ratio is becoming a common practice in the center-south of Brazil. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the immobilization of ammonium N applied with pig slurry to the soil. One experiment was run in the field and the other in laboratory conditions, both on a Hapludalf soil. The treatments consisted of pig slurry application with and without oat straw, with ( reduced tillage) and without (no-tillage) soil incorporation. The ammonium fraction of pig scurry was enriched with 15 N to quantify of this ammoniacal N. In the field ammonium-N immobilization was evaluated during corn growth, in three soil layers down to a depth of 10 cm. The results from the two experiments indicated that N immobilization from the ammonium fraction of pig slurry was not influenced by soil incorporation, but was stimulated by the presence of oat straw. When pig slurry was applied with oat straw in field conditions the maximum amount of immobilized N reached 16 % of the applied ammonium N whereas in fallow soil the value was only 11 %. Immobilized ammonium N was highest after pig slurry application in field conditions during the initial phase of oat straw decomposition and in the surface soil layer. The potential effect of oat straw on ammoniacal N immobilization of the pig slurry evaluated in the laboratory was 4.2 kg N Mg3- of carbon added with the straw.