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RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Evaluation of the diffusive gradients in thin-films (DGT) technique for measuring nitrate and ammonium in soil

Krishantha Kodithuwakku A , Jianyin Huang https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1584-9341 A * , Casey L. Doolette https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8092-3520 B , Sean Mason C , John Boland https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1132-7589 D , Enzo Lombi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3384-0375 A B , Niklas J. Lehto https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8563-2469 E and Peter R. Teasdale A A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A STEM, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia.

B Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia.

C Agronomy Solutions Pty. Ltd., 3/11, Ridley Street, Hindmarsh, SA 5007, Australia.

D Industrial Al research centre, STEM, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia.

E Department of Soil and Physical Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, New Zealand.

* Correspondence to: leslie.huang@unisa.edu.au

Handling Editor: Graeme Batley

Environmental Chemistry 19(8) 483-494 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN22107
Submitted: 21 October 2022  Accepted: 19 January 2023   Published: 20 February 2023

© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Environmental context. Nitrate (NO3) and ammonium (NH4+) are the most important soil nitrogen forms for plant growth. However, conventional extraction techniques may introduce artefacts affecting the measurement of plant-available N concentrations following sampling and sample preparation processes. This is the first study of the DGT technique being used to measure NO3-N and NH4-N in a wide range of soils, compared with conventional KCl extraction, and examined different factors that contribute to the plant-availability of these ions in soils. The knowledge would help to optimise soil nitrogen management practices, increase economic benefits and reduce environmental impacts.

Rationale. The availability of soil nitrogen for plant uptake can be affected by numerous soil factors such as soil texture, moisture and organic matter content, temperature and microbial activity. Conventional extraction techniques may affect the measurement of plant-available N concentrations following sampling and sample preparation processes, including drying, sieving, homogenising, freezing and thawing. The diffusive gradients in thin-films (DGT) technique can overcome some limitations of the conventional extraction techniques and has been used to successfully estimate the plant-available fractions of nutrients, such as P, K, Zn, Cu and Mn in soils. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the use of DGT for measuring NO3 and NH4+ in a wide variety of soils and examine the factors that contribute to the plant-availability of these ions in soils.

Methodology. The experiment evaluated the ability of the DGT technique to measure NO3-N and NH4-N in soils using binding layers containing A520E anion exchange resin or Microlite® PrCH cation exchange resin, respectively. The DGT results were compared to those from conventional KCl extraction.

Results. The A520E- and PrCH-DGTs showed good detection limits for NO3-N (6.90 µg L−1) and NH4-N (6.23 µg L−1) and were able to measure potentially available NO3-N and NH4-N in unfertilised soils. The mass of NO3-N and NH4-N that accumulated on the DGT device increased linearly across soil concentrations ranging from 5 to 300 mg kg−1 NO3-N (depending on soil type) and 5–300 mg kg−1 NH4-N; which is equivalent to fertiliser rates of 75–450 kg ha−1 N. DGTs were used to measure potentially available NO3-N and NH4-N in ten soils with various physical and chemical properties. The DGT results were compared with conventional KCl extraction used to determine soil mineral N. DGT and KCl extraction measured values were significantly correlated with each other for NO3-N (R2 = 0.53; P-value < 0.001), but the relationship between the two measurements was weaker for NH4-N (R2 = 0.20, P-value = 0.045).

Discussion. The results suggest that the two methods sample different N pools in the soils, with DGT targeting the NO3-N and NH4-N that are available in soil pore water and attached to labile solid phases.

Keywords: accumulation, binding capacity, conventional extraction, correlation, DGT technique, fertiliser efficiency, limit of detection, soil nitrogen availability.


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