Nitrogen mineralization in sub‐tropical paddy soils in relation to soil mineralogy, management, pH, carbon, nitrogen and iron contents

The nitrogen (N) requirement for paddy rice cultivated in Bangladesh amounts to approximately 80 kg N ha −1 . Lack of knowledge on N mineralization from soil organic matter leads farmers to meet this N requirement exclusively by costly mineral fertilizers, which have typically an efficiency of less than 40%. We assessed to what extent routinely analysed soil properties (N and carbon (C), texture, pH, extractable iron (Fe), aluminium (Al) and manganese (Mn), soil mineralogy and length of the annual inundation period) are able to predict net aerobic and anaerobic N mineralization in paddy soils. Both soil N and C correlated positively with the aerobic but not with the anaerobic N mineralization rate. Instead, relative anaerobic N mineralization showed a…