Garden with Insight v1.0 Help: Soil patch next day functions: calculate equilibrium flow between active and stable N in organic matter

The ratio of active to stable organic N is an important determinant of how quickly nutrients become available to plants, because mineralization (conversion to nitrate) only takes place in the active organic N. Flow from active to stable organic N (or back) attempts to keep the active:stable ratio at a constant for each soil layer, constrained by a constant maximum rate of flow.

The equilibrium ratio of active:stable organic N is calculated by a function based on the number of years the soil had been cultivated before the simulation starts (a parameter). Generally the longer a soil area has been cultivated, the lower the ratio of active to stable organic N (because what remains is held the most tightly). Layers below the plow depth (0.2 meters) have a ratio of 40% that of the top layers.

EPIC Mineralization (includes active-stable organic N flow)
Model contents