Abstract
Seasonal dynamics of N-mineralization and the size of the viable community of nitrifying bacteria were studied for a forest site and an adjoining cropland site. The forest site was dominated by Boswellia serrata and Acacia catechu in the tree layer, and by Nyctanthes arbortristis and Zizyphus glaberrima in the shrub layer. Crop sequence on the cropland site was Oryza sativa/Lens culinaris. The soil type in both the sites was ultisol (USDA). The cropland soil had significantly higher bulk density, and clay content but lower organic C, total N and total P than forest soil. The soil moisture content, numbers of ammonia-and nitrite oxidizing bacteria and N-mineralization rates were highest in the wet season and lowest in the dry season, while the size of mineral N and P pools showed a reverse trend in both sites. The numbers of free-living cells of ammonia-and nitrite oxidizing bacteria were significantly related with each other as well as with the soil moisture content and N-mineralization rates. In N-mineralization, NO −3 was the dominating form in the forest site during rainy season, while in other seasons in this site and in all the seasons in the cropland site, NH +4 -N was predominant. The N-mineralization rate and the number of viable nitrifying cells were consistently higher for the forest soil compared to the clay-rich cropland soil. The combination of low soil organic matter and high clay content suppressed the number of free-living cells of nitrifying bacteria and N-mineralization rates in the cropland site.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexander M 1965 Most-probable-number method for microbial populations. In Methods of Soil Analysis. Ed. C A Black. pp 1467–1472. Am. Soc. Agron. Inc. Madison, WI, USA.
Alexander M and Clark F E 1965 Nitrifying bacteria. In Methods of Soil Analysis. Ed. C A Black. pp 1477–1489. Am. Soc. Agron. Inc., Madison, WI, USA.
Allen J C 1985 Soil response to forest clearing in the United States and the tropics: Geological and biological factors. Biotropica 17, 15–27.
Allison F E 1973 Soil Organic Matter and its Role in Crop Production. Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
APHA (American Public Health Association) 1985 Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. American Public Health Association, Washington, DC, USA.
Aweto A O 1981 Secondary succession and soil fertility restoration in south-western Nigeria. II. Soil fertility restoration. J. Ecol. 69, 609–614.
Ayanaba A, Tuckwell S B and Jenkinson D S 1976 The effects of clearing and cropping on the organic reserves and biomass of tropical forest soils. Soil Biol. Biochem. 8, 519–525.
Bauer A and Black A L 1981 Carbon, nitrogen and bulk density comparison in two cropland tillage systems after 25 years and virgin grasslands. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 45, 1166–1170.
Belser L W 1979 Population ecology of nitrifying bacteria. Ann. Rev. Microbiol. 33, 309–333.
Berg P and Rosswall T 1985 Ammonium oxidizer numbers, potential and actual oxidation rates in two Swedish arable soils. Biol. Fertil. Soils 1, 131–140.
Berg P and Rosswall T 1987 Seasonal variation in abundance and activity of nitrifiers in four arable cropping systems. Microbiol. Ecol. 13, 75–87.
Brams E A 1971 Continuous cultivation of West African soils: Organic matter diminuation and effects of applied lime and phosphorus. Plant and Soil 35, 401–414.
Brown S and Lugo A E 1990 Effects of forest clearing and succession on the carbon and nitrogen content of soils in Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands. Plant and Soil 124, 53–64.
Dommergues Y R 1966 Biologie du Sol. Presses Universitaire de France, Paris, France.
Donaldson J M and Henderson G S 1990 Nitrification potential of secondary succession upland oak forests: I. Mineralization and nitrification during laboratory incubations. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 54, 892–897.
Elliott E T 1986 Aggregate structure and carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in native and cultivated soils. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 50, 627–633.
Eno C F 1960 Nitrate production in the field by incubating the soil in polyethylene bags. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proc. 24, 277–279.
Focht D D and Verstraete W 1977 Biochemical ecology of nitrification and denitrification. Adv. Microbiol. Ecol. 1, 135–214.
Gupta V V S R and Germida J J 1988 Distribution of microbial biomass and its activity in different soil aggregate size classes as affected by cultivation. Soil Biol. Biochem. 20, 777–786.
Haynes R J 1986 Nitrification. In Mineral Nitrogen in the Plant-Soil System. Ed. R J Haynes. pp 127–165. Academic Press, Inc., London, UK.
Ilyaletdinov A 1988 Microbial Conversion of Nitrogen Compounds in the Soil. Nauka Publishers, Moscow, Russia.
Indian Standards 1965 Indian Standards: 2720, Part IV: Grain size Analysis. Indian Standards Institute, New Delhi, India.
Jackson M L 1958 Soil Chemical Analysis. Prentice Hall, New Jersey, USA.
Jha C S and Singh J S 1990 Composition and dynamics of dry tropical forest in relation to soil texture. J. Veg. Sci. 1, 609–614.
Johnson D W and Edwards N T 1979 The effects of stem girdling on biogeochemical cycles within a mixed deciduous forest in eastern Tennessee. II. Soil nitrogen mineralization and nitrification rates. Oecologia 40, 259–271.
Martikainen P J 1985 Numbers of autotrophic nitrifiers and nitrification in fertilized forest soil. Soil Biol. Biochem. 17, 245–248.
Mazzarino M J, Oliva L, Abril A and Acosta M 1991 Factors affecting nitrogen dynamics in a semiarid woodland (Dry Chaco, Argentina). Plant and Soil 138, 85–98.
Mc Laren A D and Peterson G H 1965 Physical chemistry and biological chemistry of clay mineral-organic nitrogen complexes. In Soil Nitrogen. Eds. W V Bartholomew and F E Clark. pp 261–284. Am. Soc. Agron. Madison, WI, USA.
Monreal C M, McGill W B and Etchevers J D 1981 Internal nitrogen cycling compared in surface samples of an Andept and a Mollisol. Soil Biol. Biochem. 13, 451–454.
Morecroft M D, Marrs R H and Woodward F I 1992 Altitudinal and seasonal trends in soil nitrogen mineralization rate in the Scottish Highlands. J. Ecol. 80, 49–56.
Nye P H and Greenland D J 1964 Changes in the soil after clearing tropical forests. Plant and Soil 21, 101–112.
Pastor J, Aber J D, Mc Claugherty C A and Melillo J M 1984 Above-ground production and N and P cycling along a nitrogen mineralization gradient on Blackhawk Island, Wisconsin. Ecology 65, 256–268.
Piper C S 1944 Soil and Plant Analysis. Inter Science Publication, Inc., Adelaide, Australia.
Powell S J and Prosser J I 1992 Inhibition of biofilm populations of Nitrosomonas europea. Microbiol. Ecol. 24, 43–50.
Power J F 1981 Nitrogen in the cultivated ecosystem. In Terrestrial Nitrogen Cycles: Processes, Ecosystem Strategies and Management Impacts. Eds. F E Clark and T Rosswall. pp 529–546. Ecol. Bull., Stockholm, Sweden.
Prosser J I 1989 Autotrophic nitrification in bacteria. Adv. Microbiol. Physiol. 30, 125–181.
Raghubanshi A S 1992 Effect of topography on selected soil properties and nitrogen mineralization in a dry tropical forest. Soil Biol. Biochem. 24, 145–150.
Roy S and Singh J S 1994 Consequences of habitat heterogeneity for availability of nutrients in a dry tropical forest. J. Ecol. 82, 503–509.
Roy S and Singh J S 1995 Seasonal and spatial dynamics of plant-available N and P pools and N-mineralization in relation to fine roots in a dry tropical forest habitat. Soil Biol. Biochem. 27, 33–40.
Sabey B R, Frederick L R and Bartholomew W B 1959 The formation of nitrate from ammonium-nitrogen in soils. III. Influence of temperature and initial population of nitrifying organisms on the maximum rate and delay period. Soil Sci. Soc. Am Proc. 23, 462–465.
Sanchez P A 1976 Properties and Management of Soils in the Tropics. Wiley-Interscience, New York, USA.
Schmidt E L 1982 Nitrification in soil. In Nitrogen in Agricultural Soils. Ed. F J Stevenson. pp 253–288. Am. Soc. Agron. Inc., Madison, USA.
Singh J S, Raghubanshi A S, Singh R S and Srivastava S C 1989 Microbial biomass acts as a source of plant nutrients in dry tropical forest and savanna. Nature (London) 338, 499–500.
Singh L and Singh J S 1991 Species structure, dry matter dynamics and carbon flux of a dry tropical forest in India. Ann. Bot. 68, 263–273.
Singh S and Singh J S 1995 Microbial biomass associated with water stable aggregates in forest, savanna and cropland soils of a seasonally dry tropical region, India. Soil Biol. Biochem. 27, 1027–1033.
Sollins P, Dpycher G and Glassman C A 1984 Net nitrogen mineralization from light-and heavy-fraction forest soil organic matter. Soil Biol. Biochem. 16, 31–37.
Sprent J I 1987 The Ecology of the Nitrogen Cycle. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Srivastava S C and Singh J S 1989 Effect of cultivation on microbial biomass C and N of dry tropical forest soil. Biol. Fertil. Soils 8, 343–348.
Srivastava S C and Singh J S 1991 Microbial C, N and P in dry tropical forest soils: Effects of alternate land uses and nutrient flux. Soil Biol. Biochem. 23, 117–124.
Stark J M and Firestone M K 1995 Mechanisms for soil moisture effects on activity of nitrifying bacteria. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 61, 218–221.
Statistical Graphics Corporation 1986 Statgraphics Statistical Graphics System. Statiatical Graphics Corporation, Inc. USA.
Tandon K K 1973 Geology of the Area, Southeast of Chandraprabha Dam, District Varanasi, U.P. with Special Reference to the Bauxite Deposits. M.Sc. Thesis, Banaras Hindu University, India.
Theng B K B 1979 Formation and Properties of Clay-Polymer Complexes. Elsevier, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Uehara G and Gillman G 1981 The Mineralogy, Chemistry and Physics of Tropical Soils with Variable Charge Clays. Westview Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Van Veen J A and Paul E A 1981 Organic carbon dynamics in grassland soils. I. Background information and computer simulation. Can. J. Soil Sci. 61, 185–201.
Van Veen J A, Ladd J N and Amato M 1985 Turnover of carbon and nitrogen through the microbial biomass in a sandy loam and a clay soil incubated with [14C(U)] glucose and [15N] (NH4)2SO4 under different moisture regimes. Soil Biol. Biochem. 17, 747–756.
Vitousek P M and Matson P A 1982 Causes of delayed nitrate production in two Indiana forests. For. Sci. 31, 122–131.
Walkley A 1947 A critical examination of a rapid method for determining organic carbon in soils-effects of variations in digestion conditions and of inorganic soil constituents. Soil Sci. 63, 251–264.
Watson S W, Valois F W and Waterbury J B 1981 The family Nitrobacteriaceae. In The Procaryotes. Eds. M P Starr, H Stolp, H G Truper, A Balows and H G Schlegal. pp 1005–1022. Springer-Verlag, Germany.
Woldendorp W and Laanbroek H J 1989 Activity of nitrifiers in relation to nitrogen nutrition of plants in natural ecosystems. Plant and Soil 115, 217–228.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jha, P.B., Singh, J.S. & Kashyap, A.K. Dynamics of viable nitrifier community and nutrient availability in dry tropical forest habitat as affected by cultivation and soil texture. Plant Soil 180, 277–285 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00015311
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00015311