Mathematical models are used to estimate the nitrogen (N) mineralization potential in the soil. The parameters of anaerobic decomposition can be used to predict N availability to flooded rice. The objective of this study was to determine the "potentially mineralizable N" (N0) and the "mineralization rate" (k) parameters, using five mathematical models for different paddy soils of the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil, and to correlate the N0 values from the models with N uptake of flooded rice plants. The experiment was carried out with samples of paddy soils collected at 15 sites in RS, and used in one anaerobic incubation laboratory trial, where mineral N values of the soil solution were determined during 24 weeks. The parameters were calculated based on mineral N values using five mathematic models. The soil samples were used in two successive flooded rice crops, in a greenhouse, to obtain the quantity of plant N uptake. The best model to estimate N0 and k, averaged across the 15 paddy soils, was the Jones model. The parameter N0 of the Stanford & Smith model and N0 of the Jones model correlated best with the N uptake of flooded rice plants in the first and second crops, respectively.
flooded rice; N availability; anaerobic decomposition
