Nitrogen retention and plant uptake on a highly weathered central Amazonian Ferralsol amended with compost and charcoal

Leaching losses of N are a major limitation of crop production on permeable soils and under heavy rainfalls as in the humid tropics. We established a field trial in the central Amazon (near Manaus, Brazil) in order to study the influence of charcoal and compost on the retention of N. Fifteen months after organic-matter admixing (0–0.1 m soil depth), we added 15N-labeled (NH4)2SO4 (27.5 kg N ha–1 at 10 atom% excess). The tracer was measured in top soil (0–0.1 m) and plant samples taken at two successive sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) harvests. The N recovery in biomass was significantly higher when the soil contained compost (14.7% of applied N) in comparison to only mineral-fertilized plots (5.7%) due to significantly higher crop production during the first growth period. After the second harvest, the retention in soil was significantly higher in the charcoal-amended plots (15.6%) in comparison to only mineral-fertilized plots (9.7%) due to higher retention in soil. The total N recovery in soil, crop residues, and grains was significantly (p < 0.05) higher on compost (16.5%), charcoal (18.1%), and charcoal-pluscompost treatments (17.4%) in comparison to only mineral-fertilized plots (10.9%). Organic amendments increased the retention of applied fertilizer N. One process in this retention was found to be the recycling of N taken up by the crop. The relevance of immobilization, reduced N leaching, and gaseous losses as well as other potential processes for increasing N retention should be unraveled in future studies.