• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.318-324
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• 2016

In order to study the effect of barley, Italian ryegrass (IRG), and legume mixture on nitrogen fixation and transfer to grasses on spring paddy field, an experiment was carried out from Oct. 2006 to June 2007 in Naju, Korea. A split plot design with three replications was used for the experiment. One reference plot was assigned for each treatment to determine nitrogen fixation. Main plots consisted of Chinese milk vetch, crimson clover, forage pea, and hairy vetch with barley, respectively. Subplot treatment were barley or IRG with four seeding ratio of legumes (50:50, 60:40, 70:30, and 80:20). To estimate N fixation by legumes, $^{15}N$ isotope dilution technique was used. $^{15}N$ fertilizer [$(^{15}NH_4)_2SO_4$ solution at 99.8 atom N] was uniformly applied to $600cm^2$ in the middle of each plot on April 15, 2007. Plots were harvest by hand on June 8, 2007. Dried sample were ground to a fine power and analyzed for total N isotope N. $^{15}N$ was determined using elemental analyzer-isotope ratio mass spectrometry. The calculation of N transfer was determined with the isotope dilution method. The content of N was higher in legumes than that in barley or Italian ryegrass. Nitrogen level in forage pea was significantly higher than that of other legumes. There were significantly differences in N content between legumes in IRG mixture. Atom % $^{15}N$ excess was significantly different in legumes with barley. The 60:40 sub plot had higher (p<0.05) atom % $^{15}N$ than other seeding ratio treatments. The enrichment ranged from 0 to 0.58. Compared to barley, the enrichment of IRG with its accompanied legumes was higher, ranging from 0.38 to 1.0. The N derived from the atmosphere (Ndfa) ranged from 0% to 49.5% with barley-legume mixture. It ranged from 0 to 60.5% in IRG-legume plots. N transfer from legumes to neighboring grasses was 12.3 to 90.9 kg/ha for barley-legume mixture and 31.7 to 107.8 kg/ha for IRG plots. IRG plots showed higher N transfer for IRG-legume mixture in general based on difference method. Based on $^{15}N$ dilution method, the N transfer was 0 to 36.1 kg/ha for barley-legume mixture and 0 to 50.6 kg/ha for IRG plots. There was a tendency toward higher N transfer on the difference method than that of the $^{15}N$ dilution method.