1. Rethinking discrepancies between difference and 15 N methods for estimating fertilizer nitrogen recovery.
- Author
-
Sun, Zhaoan and Zhu, Biao
- Subjects
- *
FERTILIZER application , *FERTILIZERS , *WHEAT , *CROPS , *CORN , *NITROGEN fertilizers , *RHIZOSPHERE - Abstract
Because of the effect of nitrogen (N) fertilization on soil-derived N uptake, N difference (FNRDiff) and 15 N tracer (FNR15N) methods may give significantly different estimates of the fertilizer N recovery (FNR) in crops. To better understand quantitative differences in FNR (∆FNR) between the two methods, we evaluated the effect of fertilizer N input rates on ∆FNR and soil-derived N uptake by considering data from field 15 N tracer experiments of cereal crops across China, including N-unfertilized treatments. The FNRDiff was significantly higher than the corresponding FNR15N in wheat (38% vs. 36%), maize (38% vs. 31%), and rice (40% vs. 31%) under fertilizer applications of 40–500 kg N ha−1. Except in wheat at 250–500 kg N ha−1, FNRDiff was higher than FNR15N at various N input rates in the three crops, and ∆FNR decreased with increasing rates of applied N. The ∆FNR apparently occurred because added-N interaction (ANI) increased soil-derived N uptake (by 5% for wheat, 11% for maize, and 24% for rice). For wheat in particular, ANI values decreased significantly as N input rates increased, with a switch from positive to negative above 252 kg N ha−1. This result suggests that the decrease in soil-derived N uptake is mainly caused by the negative rhizosphere N priming and the law of diminishing returns (current-season non-fertilizer N input or previous-season residual fertilizer N) under high N input, but not by the N pool substitution. Finally, we propose a new method for accurately distinguishing direct and indirect pathway contributions to ∆FNR. This study helps to improve understanding of the underlying mechanisms of discrepancies between the N difference method and the 15 N tracer method for estimating the fertilizer N recovery in crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF