Effect of the inhibitors nitrapyrin and sodium chlorate on nitrification and N₂O formation in an acid forest soil

Abstract

An acid forest soil from beech forest gaps, which were either limed or unlimed, and the undisturbed forest was investigated for the type of nitrifying populations and the process of N₂O evolution. To see whether nitrifiers were of heterotrophic or autotrophic origin, the nitrification inhibitors nitrapyrin and sodium chlorate were applied to disturbed soil samples which underwent laboratory incubations. Nitrapyrin inhibits autotrophic nitrification. In different studies, sodium chlorate has been identified as an inhibitor either of autotrophic or of heterotrophic nitrification. In the samples investigated only nitrapyrin inhibited the autotrophic nitrification occurring in the limed soil. Sodium chlorate effectively inhibited heterotrophic nitrification. In the limed forest floor samples, where most autotrophic nitrification occured, sodium chlorate showed no inhibitory effect. In another laboratory incubation experiment, N₂O evolution from undisturbed soil columns, to which the above inhibitors were applied, was investigated. In those samples, in which nitrification had been reduced, neither inhibitor significantly reduced N₂O evolution. Thus it was concluded that the contribution of nitrification to N₂O losses is negligible, and that N₂O evolution arises from the activity of denitrifying organisms. Microbial biomass and respiration measurements showed that the inhibitors did not affect microflora negatively.