Long-term fertilizer management in NERICA cultivated upland affects on soil bio-chemical properties

This study aims to characterize soil chemical properties and microbial biomass, greenhouse gas production, and organic matter dynamics in upland rice field as affected by the long-term fertilizer managements in Uganda. Soil total C (TC) and N (TN) contents were in the relatively smaller range under different fertilizer treatments, even after 20 crop seasons. However, available phosphate contents showed positive correlation with average yield of upland rice. Incubation experiments were conducted under aerobic or under flooding conditions to measure CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide productions. After the incubation, soil samples were extracted to quantify nitrification rate for aerobic condition and ammonification rate for flooding condition. Soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and nitrogen were measured. Stable isotope ratio of 13C and 15N were also determined for the soil samples. CO2 production potential under aerobic condition was higher than the flooding condition. The qCO2 (CO2/MBC) in the treatment applied with compost tended to be higher than the other treatments. Positive correlation between nitrous oxide production and nitrification was found. The delta 13C values of the soil samples indicated that the effect of C4 plants before rice cultivation still remained, while the contribution of biological N2 fixation was little according to delta 15N values. These results indicate that soil microbial biomass in upland rice field of the long-term fertilizer experiment in Uganda was characterized with higher qCO2. Greenhouse gas production was affected by fertilizer management, while soil organic C before the long-term experiment still remained in the experiment.