The objective of this work was to verify the influence of different types of straw (maize and lablab) and soil management on evolving CO2 and N mineralization. A dystrophic clayey Dark-Red Latosol under Cerrado from the region of Sete Lagoas, MG, Brazil, was cultivated during five years with no-tillage, disc-plow and moldboard-plow. Soil samples (0-20 cm) were incubated at 25ºC during 55 days, with and without N fertilizer applied at the beginning and 25 days afterwards. As a general rule, the maize straw had higher rates of evolved CO2 than the lablab (935 e 764 mug CO2 g-1 soil, respectively). The type of straw influenced the amount of CO2 evolved more than the type of soil management did. Nitrogen addition increases the rate of CO2 evolved only when applied at the beginning of the incubation period. The N availability and the duration of the immobilization are modified by the C/N ratio and by the type of soil management.
mulching straw; immobilization; N fertilization
