Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer ISSN:0367-6315(Print) 2288-2162(Online) 한국토양비료학회 학회지

To investigate the possibility of ammonia volatilization in mine lands limed, we conducted an incubation experiment with treating livestock manure compost as an organic fertilizer and dolomite and oyster shell as a liming material. For trapping ammonia volatilized, installing boric acid in a closed system was efficient, with a recovery of 101.2±3.7%. Treating compost and liming material increased soil pH to a range of 5.75-5.88 for a metal-mine soil and 6.02-6.06 for a coal-mine soil. Ammonium-N in soils decreased rapidly with time during early stage of incubation, but nitrate-N changed little. Accumulated ammonia volatilization during incubation was negligible, less than 0.3 mg N kg^-1, and only 0.4-0.5% of ammonium-N was volatilized during incubation. Ammonium fixation by clay minerals and immobilization by soil microbes possibly account for the decrease in concentration of ammonium-N. From these results, we concluded that nitrogen loss by ammonium volatilization would be significantly low when acidic mine soils treated with livestock manure compost and liming materials were neutralized to slightly acidic condition.

Cumulative ammonia volatilization in (a) metal and (b) coal mine soils after treating compost (Com), compost and dolomite (Com+Dol), and compost and oyster shell (Com+Oys).