Bio-fertilizer applications from poultry slaughterhouses in subtropical agriculture - Interactions between soil structure and nitrate dynamics

The No-till system and organic fertilization combined can be a potential strategy to avoid nutrient leaching, as the soil structure plays a crucial role in retaining them. In this study, we evaluated the influence of different rates of a bio-fertilizer made of industrial organic waste (IOW) from a poultry slaughterhouse on the percolation and stocks of nitrate in disturbed and undisturbed soil samples collected from a subtropical no-till field in southern Brazil. In an incubation experiment, we performed a percolation experiment using lysimeters and simulated rainfall for 180 days and evaluated the remaining soil nitrate stock after the incubation period. We set up a completely randomized experiment with three replicates using four IOW rates (equivalent to 0, 2, 4, and 8 Mg ha^-1) and two sample types: disturbed and undisturbed soils. Using the bio-fertilizer increased nitrate mineralization from 0.77 to 1.55 kg ha^-1 day^-1. Overall, the IOW application increased the amount of percolated nitrate, significantly influenced by the simulated rainfall (p < 0.01). The amount of water flushed through the lysimeters was significantly higher for the disturbed soils (p < 0.05, LSD test), suggesting that the loosened structure promoted a higher water flux. No differences were observed between undisturbed and disturbed samples for nitrate percolation, implying that the amount of nitrate in the liquid soil phase may be a more critical factor in determining nitrate leaching than the water flux. The disturbed samples presented significantly higher nitrate percolation with increasing IOW rates, regardless of precipitation. Stocks in the 0-5 cm depth were 6.6 kg ha^-1 higher for undisturbed samples (p < 0.05, LSD test). This result suggests preserving the soil structure can significantly increase the nitrate stocks upon IOW application.