Mineralized nitrogen uptake by plants of the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilization in agriculture

Abstract

The underground transfer of nitrogen from non-food crop residues to cash crops is an important tool to ensure decent crop yields and balance N use in agroecosystems. Laboratory experiments were performed to determine nitrogen migration in spring wheat at different growth stages using labelled nitrogen. In the first stage of the experiment, Artemisia dubia was grown in climate chambers (Climacell CLC-707-TV), with air temperature cycles of 8 h at 15 °C and 16 h at 20 °C, and fertiliz using 15N isotope enriched ammonia nitrate. In the second stage of the experiment, spring wheat was sown and grown to full maturity in two soils of differing soil acidity (pH 3.93 ± 0,04 and pH 7.07 ± 0,08) and mixed with the chopped pieces (3–5 cm mean length) of Artemisia dubia above-ground biomass obtained in the first stage of the experiment. Each soil had four experimental treatments: non-enriched biomass; non-enriched biomass and fertilizer (170 N kg h−1); biomass enriched by 15N and no fertilizer, and 15N enriched biomass and fertilizer (170 N kg h−1). Spring wheat and soil were sampled every two weeks for dry matter (DM), total N and 15N content measurements during the experiment (13 weeks). The results showed that improved crop nitrogen utilization from Artemisia dubia residues were achieved when additional crop fertilizers was not used. It implies that adding additional nitrogen might increase the degradation of plant biomass, but at the same time cause environmental pollution by leaching as plants use it slightly for their growth.

Keywords

• Nitrogen migration
• 15N labelling
• Artemisia dubia
• Spring wheat