Nitrogen, soil microbial degradation

The Michaelis-Menten equation is often employed in soil-water systems to describe kinetics of ion uptake by plant roots and microbial cells, as well as microbial degradation-transformation of organics (e.g., pesticides, industrial organics, nitrogen, sulfur, and natural organics) and oxidation or reduction of metals or metalloids. Derivation of the Michaelis-Menten equation(s) is demonstrated below. 

Decomposition is essentially a microbial process whose rate is regulated by a suite of physical and biological controls. At the microscopic level, many of the biochemical details of microbial degradation of specific carbon and nitrogen compounds have been well documented. However, beyond this scale, most of our understanding of decomposition becomes empirical in nature. As we have highlighted in this review, there exists a wealth of data on the decomposition of plant litter while root and soil OM have received significantly... 

CDU in pure form is a white powder. It is made slowly available to the soil solution by nature of its limited solubihty in water. Once in the soil solution, nitrogen from CDU is made available to the plant through a combination of hydrolysis and microbial decomposition. As with any CRE which is dependent on microbial action, the mineralization of CDU is temperature dependent. Product particle size has a significant effect on CDU nitrogen release rate. Smaller particles mineralize more rapidly because of the larger surface contact with the soil solution and the microbial environment. The rate of nitrogen release is also affected by pH because CDU degrades more rapidly in acidic soils. 

---