Dissertation Research: Denitrification in Subsurface Soils

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation improvement project will study the loss of nitrogen from soils to the atmosphere, a process called denitrification. Traditionally, denitrification was thought to occur mostly in surface soils, but recent evidence suggests that deeper soils can also play an important role in the nitrogen cycle. This project will conduct a series of experiments to assess the rates of denitrification from deep soils and how this affected by specific agricultural practices. Denitrification represents one of the major pathways that biologically available nitrogen leaves terrestrial ecosystems, along with leaching, volatilization, and runoff, and is the only process capable of returning nitrogen to its inert form of dinitrogen gas. Understanding where and at what rate dinitrification occurs is fundamental to understanding the nitrogen cycle.