The Natural Nitrogen Flush in Different Arable Soils and Climates in East Africa

Abstract

Working in East Africa Birch [1, 2, 3. 4, 5, 6] has shown that drying soil samples prior to re-moistening them markedly increases the mineralization of natural nitrogen during subsequent incubation, He found that for a particular soil the amount of nitrogen mineralized was a direct function of the logarithm of the length of time that the soil was dry before wetting and incubation, and of the temperature of the soil during the dry period,