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Comparison of the ammonia detector-tube and boric acid absorption-standard acid titration methods to quantify ammonia volatilization in soil incubation
Received:April 21, 2019  
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KeyWord:soil incubation;ammonia volatilization;ammonia detector-tube method;boric acid absorption-standard acid titration
Author NameAffiliationE-mail
XIE Wei University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China 
 
WANG Ying-ying Nanjing University of Information Science&Technology, Nanjing 210044, China  
SUN Ting Agricultural and Rural Bureau of Jiangning District of Nanjing City, Nanjing 211100, China  
WANG Shen-qiang Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China sqwang@issas.ac.cn 
ZHAO Xu Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China  
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Abstract:
      To explore the feasibility of the newly developed ammonia detector tube for measurements of soil ammonia(NH3) volatilization flux, a 15-day soil aerobic incubation experiment, with or without fertilizer nitrogen(N) input, was conducted. Fertilizer NH3 losses were compared in soil simultaneously tested with the ammonia detector-tube method and the conventional boric acid absorption-standard acid titration method. Urea-nitrogen was added at rates of 0(as control), 200, and 400 mg·kg-1 dry soil, respectively. Cumulative NH3 volatilization in the soil treated with 200 mg N·kg-1 input over 15 days of aerobic incubation was 3.05 mg N·kg-1 and 3.29 mg N·kg-1 using the ammonia gas detection-tube method and the boric acid absorption-standard acid titration method, respectively, accounting for 1.15% and 1.26% of added N. When the N input increased to 400 mg N·kg-1, NH3 losses measured by the two methods were 7.16~7.20 mg N·kg-1, comprising 1.59%~1.61% of total N added. No apparent difference was found in either the NH3 volatilization patterns or losses between the two methods. These results demonstrate that the ammonia detector-tube method is feasible for the convenient and rapid determination of NH3 volatilization from an enclosed soil incubation system. The main advantage of the detector-tube method is the direct reading of NH3 concentrations, which is not possible with the conventional boric acid absorption-standard acid titration method.