A large proportion
of the soil microbial biomass exists in a dormant state in the absence
of substrate inputs (Mondini et al., 2006). In general, if the C/N
ratio of substrates is N20 to 25, soil microorganisms require additional
N to proliferate (Berg et al., 2003; Mooshammer et al., 2014). Both soil
inorganic N or low-molecular weight organic N can meet this need
(Emeterio et al., 2014). Results from the present study show that soil
microorganisms satisfied their N requirements from both sources.