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Denitrification Losses From Kentucky Bluegrass Sod, C. F. Mancino, W. A. Torello, David J. Wehner

Office of the Dean (CAFES) Scholarship

Denitrification may represent an important mechanism in the fate of N applied to turf. Denitrification losses were directly measured from fertilized 'Baron' Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) sod samples sealed in acrylic chambers using the acetylene inhibition technique. Losses were correlated with soil texture, percent soil saturation (SAT), and temperature. Losses from turf on a Hadley silt loam soil and Hadley silt soil (both coarse-silty, mixed, nonacid, mesic Typic Udifluvents) incubated at 22°C did not exceed 0.4 and 0.1%, respectively, of the applied potassium nitrate fertilizer (4.5 g N m^-2) when soil water levels were less than …