Exploring Temperature-Related Effects in Catch Crop Net N Mineralization Outside of First-Order Kinetics

Catch crops are an effective method for reducing nitrogen (N) leaching in agriculture, but the mineralization of incorporated catch crop residue N is difficult to predict and model. We conducted a five-month incubation experiment using fresh from three (hairy vetch, fodder radish ryegrass) with temperature treatments (2 °C, 15 °C 2–15 variable temperature) two termination methods (glyphosate untreated). Mineral (ammonium nitrate) soil was quantified at 0, 1, 2, 4, 8 20 weeks incubation. Ammonium accumulation decomposition showed lag low temperature, subsequent nitrification ammonium did not. over time changed exponential sigmoidal mode temperature. Incubation significantly affected rates first-order kinetics (FOK) model, while plant type Plant alone had significant effect on final mineralized fraction added N. FOK models modified accommodate initial were fitted results produced better goodness-of-fit statistics than simple FOK. suggest that lags should be investigated benefit predictions cropping models.