Nitrogen and carbon isotope responses of Chinese cabbage and chrysanthemum to the application of liquid pig manure

The effects of the liquid pig manure (LM) used in organic farming on the natural abundance of 15N and 13C signatures in plant tissues have not been studied. We hypothesized that application of LM will (1) increase δ15N of plant tissues due to the high δ15N of N in LM as compared with soil N or inorganic fertilizer N, and (2) increase δ13C of plant tissues as a result of high salt concentration in LM that decreases stomatal conductance of plants. To test these hypotheses, variations in the δ15N and δ13C of Chinese cabbage (Brassica campestris L.) and chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramatuelle) with two different LMs (with δ15N of +15.6 and +18.2‰) applied at two rates (323 and 646 kg N ha-1 for cabbage and 150 and 300 kg N ha-1 for chrysanthemum), or urea (δ15N = -2.7‰) applied at the lower rate above for the respective species, in addition to the control (no N input) were investigated through a 60-day pot experiment. Application of LM significantly increased plant tissue δ15N (range +9.4 to +14.9‰) over the urea (+3.2 to +3.3‰) or control (+6.8 to 7.7‰) treatments regardless of plant species, strongly reflecting the δ15N of the N source. Plant tissue δ13C were not affected by the treatments for cabbage (range −30.8 to −30.2‰) or chrysanthemum (−27.3 to −26.8‰). However, cabbage dry matter production decreased while its δ13C increased with increasing rate of LM application or increasing soil salinity (P < 0.05), suggesting that salinity stress caused by high rate of LM application likely decreased stomatal conductance and limited growth of cabbage. Our study expanded the use of the δ15N technique in N source (organic vs. synthetic fertilizer) identification and suggested that plant tissue δ13C maybe a sensitive indicator of plant response to salinity stress caused by high LM application rates.