Nitrogen Loss in Chicken Manure Compost through Runoff and Leaching

Chicken manure was composted in open windrow to understand the losses of nitrogen(N) through runoff and leaching.During the composting process,only 3‰~6‰ of initial nitrogen was lost through runoff,in which about 50% was organic nitrogen.The volume of total nitrogen concentration of runoff was related to the time and precipitation,and the average level is about 20 mg/L.The nitrogen had a strong mobility and leached to 150 cm soil at least during composting,which was a danger to the groundwater quality.During the composting there maybe 35%~65% of nitrogen was lost by NH3 volatilization.The compost covered by straw had the least nitrogen runoff,while the zeolite did not reduce the loss of nitrogen significantly compared to other treatments.