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Soil litter dynamics and N use in a leucaena (Leucaena leucocephalaLam. (de Witt)) alley cropping system in southwestern Nigeria

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Title Soil litter dynamics and N use in a leucaena (Leucaena leucocephalaLam. (de Witt)) alley cropping system in southwestern Nigeria
 
Creator Vanlauwe, B.
Swift, M.J.
Merckx, R.
 
Subject LEUCAENA LEUCOCEPHALA
MAIZE
CROPS
ALLEY CROPPING
CROPPING SYSTEMS
 
Description The recovery of a single application of leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala) leaf N (78 kg N ha−1) in a maize crop, the hedgerow and the top 10 cm soil of a leucaena alley cropping system was measured for 236 d through the use of 15N labeled residues. The leucaena-derived-N (LDN) was followed in the surface litter and the soil-litter — separated by a flotation method on water — during the same period.At 45 and 129 d after the residue application (DAA), only 4.2 and 10.0% of the added leucaena N was recovered in the maize crop while the aboveground hedgerow incorporated 9.6 and 9.4% in its first and second canopy regrowth. At 45 and 129 DAA, 19.7 and 13.2% remained in the surface litter and soil. Total recoveries were 33.5 and 42.2% on the respective dates. The C and N content of the coarse (larger than 2 mm) and fine (between 2 and 0.25 mm) soil-litter fraction of the top 5 cm layer strongly increased after residue application. Soil total C in the total soil-litter decreased from 22% at 45 DAA to 8% at 236 DAA. A significant positive relationship (1% level) was found between the microbial biomass C and the total soil-litter C. The LDN release rate from the combined surface litter-coarse soil-litter was 0.0477 d−1, while the fine soil-litter had a LDN release rate of 0.0083 d−1. Only 8.6% of the released surface litter-coarse soil-litter LDN entered the fine soil-litter pool. These turnover rates lead to a poor synchronization of the LDN released from all litter pools with the maize LDN uptake during the first 45 d of maize growth, while between day 45 and 129, all released LDN was recovered either in the soil, maize or hedgerow.
 
Date 2019-10-03T14:30:52Z
2019-10-03T14:30:52Z
1996
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Vanlauwe, B., Swift, M.J. & Merckx, R. (1996). Soil litter dynamics and N use in a leucaena (Leucaena leucocephalaLam. (de Witt)) alley cropping system in Southwestern Nigeria. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 28(6), 739-749.
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/103910
 
Language en