Abstract

Rice is an important food in the world population's diet. As nitrogen (N) is the principal nutrient associated with the yield and its mineralization from the soil contribute to plant-available N, the use of biological or chemical methods are necessary for its estimation. Two paddy rice soils types of Chile were used for laboratory (anaerobic incubation) and field experiments: Quella (Vertisol) and Quilmen (Inceptisol), fertilized with three N rates - ureas of 0, 80 and 160 kg ha -1. The mineralized inorganic N was measured and potentially mineralizable N (N 0) was calculated based on the first-order kinetic model. N mineralization was positively affected by N fertilization, but only affected grain yield in the Quilmen soil with a negative effect on the crop N recovery. Furthermore, crop N uptake was related with the incubation time at 14 and 21 days for the Quilmen and Quella soils respectively. Finally an N optimization model for those soils was proposed. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.