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Abstract. Microbial transformations and chemical distribution of N were compared in two upland stagnohumic gley soils at the same site. In 1981 one soil was improved for more intensive agriculture by lime and fertilizer applications and reseeding with a grass/clover mixture. The other soil (referred to here as unimproved) was also reseeded in 1981, but no lime was added and the sward has subsequently reverted to rough grazing land. Improvement resulted in greater soil microbial activity. The improved soil showed greater rates of denitrification, net N immobilization and N fixation (acetylene reduction) and contained more microbial biomass N than the unimproved soil. However, no major differences in the distribution of organic N fractions were detected. This indicates that a large amount of the soil N present before improvement did not undergo mineralization and remained unavailable to plants.

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