Mineralization and Immobilization of Soil Nitrogen

The nitrogen (N) supply is one of the general decisive factors in crop production. In many agricultural systems, it is customary to increase the input of N through fertilization. This chapter focuses on the ecological function of two individual N transformation processes, namely, mineralization and immobilization. Both are biochemical in nature, and both are bound to the activities of the organisms making up the heterotrophic biomass. The process of mineralization plays a key role in this universal nutrient (N) cycle, being responsible for the fundamental transformation of organic N in plant remains back into the simple inorganic forms originally used by the plants in their photosynthetic activities. Immobilization is an indispensable and integrated prerequisite for mineralization. The fashion of today in biological and ecological research is to build simulation models of processes, reaction chains, and nutrient cycles. These models are founded on mathematical functions, illustrating the reaction stages, and computer techniques.