Increased Ammonium/Nitrate (NH 4 + /NO 3 - ) ratios along Faidherbia
albia Stand age gradients: An indication for Ecological Processes and
Communities Successions
Abstract
Increased in soil total nitrogen (TN) as influenced by Faidherbia
albida here after F. albida have been explored for decades.
However, changes in ammonium (NH 4 +)
to nitrate (NO 3 -) ratios as
influenced by the tree and the relationships with other soil
physicochemical and biological properties were not explored. Thus, the
present study was carried out in 2023 to investigate changes in soil NH
4 +/ NO 3
- ratios and the relationships with biotic and abiotic
factors across different stand age of F. albida in a semi-arid
Arenosols at Abraha we Atsbeha, northern Ethiopia. Soil NH
4 + and NO 3
- were extracted using analytical grade potassium
chloride solution and their concentrations were determined by
colorimetric method using UV-VIS spectrophotometer (Model: UV-VIS
Spectrophotometer, Series No.: AE1605020). One-way analysis of variance
(ANOVA) was done to compare means and Pearson correlations using IBM
SPSS Statistics Version 20, and redundancy analysis (RDA) using CANOCO
software to understand the relationships among soil physicochemical and
biological variables. Our results indicated that TN, NH
4 +, NO 3
- and NH 4 +/ NO
3 - ratios significantly (P
< 0.05) increased with F. albida stand age. The most
important thing here was that the proportion of NH 4
+ has been succeeding over NO 3
- and this could have profound effect on both below
and above ground features of the Arenosol agro-ecosystem.
Moreover, redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that NH 4
+ concentration strongly associated with soil moisture
content (MC), cation exchange capacity (CEC), TN, extractable base
cations (K, Ca, Mg), extractable phosphorus (EP), soil organic Carbon
(SOC), organic matter (OM) microbial biomass carbon (MBC), clay texture,
abundance of nematodes, density of fibrous rooted weeds while it was
found to have negative relationships with soil bulk density, sandy
texture and pH. Our findings enabled us to accept the hypothesis that NH
4 +/ NO 3
- ratios would increase with increasing F.
albida stand age. In conclusion, increased F. albida stand age
in agro ecosystems would increase NH 4
+/ NO 3 - ratios.
Consequently, this triggered below and above ground communities
successions and ultimately surpasses production and productivity of arid
and semi-arid Arenosols.