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The article presents a study on reducing nitrate leaching while maximizing water and nitrogen management under desert oasis conditions in northwestern China. It stresses the importance in understanding water and nitrogen transport in soil profile for efficient irrigation and nutrient management for agricultural sustainable development in desert oases. The study aims to implement the water and nitrogen management model (WNMM) to induce the water movement, nitrate transport, and crop growth. Moreover, it details the methods and materials used in the study and explores the results of the study.

Soil denitrification fluxes and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from the soil surface simulated by a Water and Nitrogen Management Model (WNMM), with three different gas modules, are compared to measurement data sets from two irrigated wheat-maize systems at two locations in the North China Plain (NCP) (2 years of measurement at the Luancheng site and 1 year of measurement at the Fengqiu site). The three gas modules are the WNMM gas module, the DAYCENT gas module, and the DNDC gas module. The term gas module used in this paper refers to the model component which simulates N2O emission from the processes of soil nitrification and denitrification. Soil water, temperature, organic matter decomposition, other nitrogen (N) transformations, such as mineralization and immobilization, and crop growth are simulated by the WNMM platform. For the 2-year data set from Luancheng, the three gas modules generate similar soil mineral N dynamics in the 0-20 cm topsoil. The daily time step, simply structured WNMM gas module consistently performs the best among the three gas modules for predicting soil denitrification fluxes (R² = 0.28, n = 39, p = 0.0006) and N2O emissions (R² = 0.45, n = 36, p < 0.0001). Up to 73, 43, and 22% of total N2O emissions are nitrification-induced as simulated by the DNDC, DAYCENT, and WNMM gas modules respectively, in this well-drained loam soil during the 2-year simulation. When applied to the 1-year data set at the Fengqiu site, the WNMM gas module consistently performs better in estimating N2O emissions (R² = 0.54, n = 35, p < 0.0001) compared to the other two modules. Simulations using the DNDC and DAYCENT gas modules explain over 40% of the temporal variation of N2O emission from the soil. Further testing on different soils and different agroecosystems is needed to confirm the superior performance of the WNMM gas module observed in this simulation study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Water scarcity and nitrate contamination in groundwater are serious problems in desert oases in Northwest China. Field and 15N microplot experiments with traditional and improved water and nitrogen management were conducted in a desert oasis in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Water movement, nitrogen transport and crop growth were simulated by the soil–plant system with water and solute transport model (SPWS). The model simulation results, including the water content and nitrate concentration in the soil profile, leaf area index, dry matter weight, crop N uptake and grain yield, were all in good agreement with the field measurements. The water and nitrogen use efficiency of the improved treatment were better than those of the traditional treatment. The water and nitrogen use efficiency under the traditional treatment were 2.0kgm−3 and 21kgkg−1, respectively, while under the improved treatment, they were 2.2kgm−3 and 26kgkg−1, respectively. Water drainage accounted for 24–35% of total water input (rainfall and irrigation) for the two treatments. Nitrogen loss by ammonia volatilization and denitrification was less than 5% of the total N input (including the N comes from irrigation). However, 32–61% of total nitrogen input was lost through nitrate leaching, which agreed with the 15N isotopic result. It is impetrative to improve the water and nitrogen management in the desert oasis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A spatially referenced biophysical model, the water and nitrogen management model (WNMM), was developed and shown to simulate dynamic soil water movement and soil–crop carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling under a given agricultural management, for the purpose of identifying optimal strategies for managing water and fertiliser N under intensive cropping systems (mainly wheat–maize) in the North China Plain and other regions in the world. A uniform data structure, ARC GRID ASCII format, was used both in GIS and WNMM for achieving a close Model-GIS coupling. A significant part of WNMM adopts and modifies concepts and components from widely used models, with a focus on soil N transformations. WNMM simulates the key processes of water dynamics in the surface and subsurface of soils: including evapotranspiration, canopy interception, water movement and groundwater fluctuations; heat transfer and solute transport; crop growth; C and N cycling in the soil–crop system; and agricultural management practices (crop rotation, irrigation, fertiliser application, harvest and tillage). The model runs on a daily time step at any desired scale and is driven by lumped variables (meteorological and crop biological data) in text data format, and spatial variables (soil and agricultural management) in ARC GRID ASCII format. In particular, WNMM simulates all key N transformations in agricultural fields, including mineralisation of fresh crop residue N and soil organic N, formation of soil organic N, immobilisation in biomass, nitrification, ammonia (NH3) volatilisation, denitrification and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. WNMM has been successfully applied in Fengqiu County, Henan Province and Luancheng County, Hebei Province, China at site and regional scales. The key WNMM components were intensively calibrated and verified against comprehensive field measurements of soil water content, evapotranspiration, crop leaf area index and yield, NH3 volatilisation, denitrification and N2O emissions as well as nitrate (NO3 −)–N concentrations in the soil solution. A sensitivity analysis showed that WNMM was sensitive to changes in meteorological variables, soil hydraulic properties, land use and agricultural management. At the site scale, WNMM simulated well soil water content, crop growth and yield, NH3 volatilisation and soil NO3 −–N concentration. There was uncertainty in simulating soil denitrification and N2O emissions, when the predicted peaks of denitrification and N2O emissions at very wet conditions could not be confirmed because of limitations in the acetylene-inhibition method for measuring denitrification. At county scale, WNMM simulation of crop yield in Fengqiu County explained 22% of the variation in observed crop yields, and 31% of crop yield variation in Luancheng County where soil variation was less. These results are considered acceptable because factors such as soil salinity and other nutrient deficiencies, which have not been considered in this version of WNMM, may play a role. The source code for the WNMM is available on request. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]