Class
Article
College
College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences
Department
English Department
Faculty Mentor
Jennifer Reeve
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Abstract
Nitrogen is an important component of plant nutrition. However, nitrogen in the soil comes in many different forms including some proteins, amino acids, and mineral nitrogen. Not all of these forms are available to plants. Things that affect the availability of nitrogen are temperature, moisture, and chemical composition of the material. It is difficult for organic farmers sourcing nitrogen because of low nitrogen content and availability from organic sources. However some plants can better utilize organic forms of nitrogen when it is available. This experiment examines how temperature affects different forms of inorganic and organic nitrogen. Additionally, it will explore how effective organic fertilizers (fish emulsion) is at increasing available nitrogen in the soils in high tunnels over the winter. To do this samples were taken in February from a random complete block design experiment with two treatments. (compost + fish fertilizer and compost only) These samples were kept cool until a soil protein using the BCA Assay (Hurisso et al, 2018), protease enzyme activity test (Ladd and Buttler, 1972), soil amino acid content test (Jones et al 2002), and microbial biomass test (Anderson, 1978) were conducted on them. It was found that adding fish emulsion decreased the amount of available nitrogen through its different forms. Additionally, temperature does affect microbial activity. Additional tests and a repeat of these experiments will help better understand where the nitrogen went and how much temperature affects available forms of nitrogen.
Location
Logan, UT
Start Date
4-8-2022 12:00 AM
Included in
Strawberry High Tunnel Effects on Different Forms of Soil Nitrogen
Logan, UT
Nitrogen is an important component of plant nutrition. However, nitrogen in the soil comes in many different forms including some proteins, amino acids, and mineral nitrogen. Not all of these forms are available to plants. Things that affect the availability of nitrogen are temperature, moisture, and chemical composition of the material. It is difficult for organic farmers sourcing nitrogen because of low nitrogen content and availability from organic sources. However some plants can better utilize organic forms of nitrogen when it is available. This experiment examines how temperature affects different forms of inorganic and organic nitrogen. Additionally, it will explore how effective organic fertilizers (fish emulsion) is at increasing available nitrogen in the soils in high tunnels over the winter. To do this samples were taken in February from a random complete block design experiment with two treatments. (compost + fish fertilizer and compost only) These samples were kept cool until a soil protein using the BCA Assay (Hurisso et al, 2018), protease enzyme activity test (Ladd and Buttler, 1972), soil amino acid content test (Jones et al 2002), and microbial biomass test (Anderson, 1978) were conducted on them. It was found that adding fish emulsion decreased the amount of available nitrogen through its different forms. Additionally, temperature does affect microbial activity. Additional tests and a repeat of these experiments will help better understand where the nitrogen went and how much temperature affects available forms of nitrogen.