Effect of tillage, cropping, and fertilizer management on soil nitrogen mineralization potential

This article compares the nitrogen mineralization potential (N) of soils under three tillage treatments (moldboard plowing, chisel plowing, and no-till) and several different crop rotations. The moldboard plow treatment had uniform N mineralization (N) potential 0-15 cm; chisel and no-till had higher N 0-5 cm depth and lower N at 5-10 cm and 10-15 cm depth. All treatments had higher N in the fall than in the spring, but there were no significant differences between tillage methods. Chisel plowing and no-till had significantly higher N than moldboard plowing in the spring sampling.