Abstract
The large size of the native N pool in soils, compared to fertilizer N inputs, and the inherent variability of native soil N, make assessments of the fate of fertiliser N virtually impossible to assess without the use of a tracer to differentiate the fertiliser input from background soil N. The low natural abundance of the stable isotope, 15N, together with the relatively low cost of 15N-enriched N compounds makes this isotope an ideal tracer for soil N transformations. Consequently, 15N-enriched substrates have been widely used in studies following the fate of N in soil-plant systems. However, the use of 15N to study N processes in the field necessitates large resources of labour and time, and access to a mass spectrometer. Attendant costs of 15N analyses also need to be considered before embarking on a program of research.
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Fillery, I.R.P., Recous, S. (2001). Use of Enriched 15N Sources to study Soil N Transformations. In: Unkovich, M., Pate, J., McNeill, A., Gibbs, D.J. (eds) Stable Isotope Techniques in the Study of Biological Processes and Functioning of Ecosystems. Current Plant Science and Biotechnology in Agriculture, vol 40. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9841-5_9
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