ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Evaluation of Specific Gravity and Electrical
Conductivity for Determining Nutrient
Concentrations in Suspensions of Poultry Manure
Li Xing1, 2, 3 Lujia Han1, 2
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1Key Laboratory of Modern Precision Agriculture System Integration, Ministry of Education,
China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
2College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
3Industrial Technology Service Center, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Mechanization Sciences,
Beijing 100083, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2007;16(6):919-925
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
With increasing concern for the pollution potential of farm wastes, there is a corresponding need for
rapid and robust methods of analysis for animal manures. In order to study the rapid testing methods
based on the relationship between nutrient concentrations and physicochemical properties, diverse samples
(n=105) were used in this study. The results indicated strong linear relations between specific gravity (SG)
and total phosphorous (TP), total nitrogen (TN), volatile solids (VS), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), and
magnesium (Mg) concentrations (R2=0.80, 0.90, 0.91, 0.68, 0.71, 0.66, 0.77, respectively). Relationships
between electrical conductivity (EC) and Sodium (Na), ammonium nitrogen (AN ), and total potassium
(TK) were significant with R2 values of 0.62, 0.85 and 0.68. Therefore, the hydrometer and conductivity
meter can estimate rapidly nutrient concentrations of layer manure.