Organic matter availability for denitrification in soils of different textures and drainage classes

Soils from the A, B, and C horizons representing three natural drainage classes and differing textures were chosen to study relationships between denitrification rate and estimates of available carbon. The highest correlation with denitrification rate was obtained with total organic C. Water‐extractable C, mineralizable C and 0.1 N Ba(OH)2‐extractable C produced less satisfactory correlations. When soils of the B and C horizons only were included in the regression analysis, 0.1 N Ba(OH)2‐extractable C was found to be unsatisfactory as a predictor of available C for soil denitrifiers. None of the four methods for estimating available C were found adequate for B and C horizon soils which were relatively low in available C. Coarser‐textured soils with relatively low C levels had correspondingly low denitrification rates. Regressions of denitrification rate on mineralizable C or water‐extractable C were nonsignificant with poorly drained soils whereas they were highly significant with well or imperfectly drained soils.