TY - JOUR A1 - Vogel, Christian A1 - Sekine, R. A1 - Huang, J. A1 - Steckenmesser, D. A1 - Steffens, D. A1 - Huthwelker, T. A1 - Borca, C. A1 - Pradas del Real, A. A1 - Castillo-Michel, H. A1 - Adam, Christian T1 - Effects of a nitrification inhibitor on nitrogen species in the soil and the yield and phosphorus uptake of maize N2 - Phosphorus (P) resource availability is declining and the efficiency of applied nutrients in agricultural soils is becoming increasingly important. This is especially true for P fertilizers from recycled materials, which often have low plant availability. Specific co-fertilization with ammoniumcan enhance P plant availability in soils amended with these P fertilizers, and thus the yield of plants. To investigate this effect, we performed a pot experiment with maize in slightly acidic soil (pH 6.9) with one water-soluble (triple superphosphate [TSP]) and two water-insoluble (sewage sludge-based and hyperphosphate [Hyp]) P fertilizers and anammoniumsulfate nitrate with or without a nitrification inhibitor (NI). The dry matter yield of maize was significantly increased by the NI with the Hyp (from 14.7 to 21.5 g/pot) and TSP (from 40.0 to 45.4 g/pot) treatments. Furthermore, P uptake was slightly increased in all three P treatments with the NI, but not significantly. Olsen-P extraction and P K-edge micro-X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy showed that apatite-P of the water insoluble P fertilizers mobilized during the plant growth period. In addition, novel nitrogen (N) K-edge micro-XANES spectroscopy and the Mogilevkina method showed that the application of an NI increased the fixation of ammonium in detectable hot spots in the soil. Thus, the delay in the nitrification process by the NI and the possible slow-release of temporarily fixed ammoniumin the soil resulted in a high amount of plant available Ammonium in the soil solution. This development probably decreases the rhizosphere pH due to release of H+ by plants during ammoniumuptake, whichmobilizes phosphorus in the amended soil and increases the dry matter yield of maize. This is especially important for water-insoluble apatite-based P fertilizers (conventional and recycled), which tend to have poor plant availability. KW - Fertilzer KW - Phosphorus recovery KW - Ammonium KW - Nitrification inhibitor KW - XANES spectroscopy KW - Diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) PY - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.136895 SN - 1879-1026 VL - 715 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam AN - OPUS4-50477 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -