Although NH4
+ is hardly
subjected to leaching because of its high affinity for the cation
exchange complex (Ghosh and Bhat, 1998) and
fixation by 2:1
phyllosilicates (Said-Pullicino et al., 2014), some migration along
the soil profile could have occurred in our system and fed the soil
solution at greater depths (50 and 75 cm). This could be related to
the soil's relatively low cation exchange capacity (10 cmol(+) kg1),
which limited NH4
+ retention in the upper horizons. Nevertheless,
NH4
+ fluxes were negligible and their contribution to inflow,
outflow and percolation N
fluxes were not taken into account