Abstract
A sheep was fed on15N-labelled ryegrass hay during a period of 9 days in order to obtain15N-labelled manure. After 9 days of feeding, the total N in faeces contained 3.70 atom %15N excess, which was equivalent to 82% of the15N enrichment of the hay N. The easily-decomposable fraction of the faecal N was less labelled (2.89 atom %15N excess) than the slowly-decomposable fraction. The15N enrichment of mineralized faecal N did not change significantly during 32 weeks of incubation in sand. About 25% of the faecal N was water-soluble. This N had a higher15N enrichment than the total faecal N, indicating that a part of the water-soluble N was indigestible feed N. The faeces contained only small amounts of NH +4 -N, which had a15N enrichment similar to the15N enrichment of N mineralized during incubation in sand. It is suggested that the labelled faecal N obtained after a few days of feeding on labelled feed could be divided in two N pools: A decomposable N fraction (about 60%) with a15N enrichment similar to the enrichment of N mineralized in sand (2.89 ± 0.09 atom %15N excess), and a very slowly-decomposable N fraction (about 40%) with a15N enrichment similar to that of the feed (4.52 atom %15N excess).
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Sørensen, P., Jensen, E.S. & Nielsen, N.E. Labelling of animal manure nitrogen with15N. Plant Soil 162, 31–37 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01416087
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01416087