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Effect of nitrogen root zone fertilization on rice yield, uptake and utilization of macronutrient in lower reaches of Yangtze River, China

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Abstract

Improper application of nitrogen (N) has led to high N losses and low N use efficiency in the lower reaches of Yangtze River in China. An effective method to solve such problems is the deep fertilized N in root zone (RZF). Limited information is available on the effect of RZF on the uptake of macronutrients (N, P and K) and rice yield. Field experiments, conducted from 2014 to 2015, compared the farmer fertilizer practice (FFP, with 225 kg ha−1 of N, split into three doses) and RZF using the same rate but placing N 5 cm away from rice roots in holes 10 cm deep (RZF10) or 5 cm deep (RZF5) as a single application. The highest mean yield (10.0 t ha−1) was obtained in RZF10, which was 19.5% more than that in FFP. Root zone fertilization of urea (whether 10 cm deep or 5 cm deep) resulted in greater accumulation of N, P and K in stem, leaf sheaths, leaf blades and grains compared to that in FFP in sandy and in loam soils. The uptake of N, P and K was the highest in RZF10 (average at 176.7, 66.2 and 179.1 kg ha−1, respectively), higher than that in FFP by 45.0, 17.0 and 22.6%, respectively. N apparent recovery efficiency was markedly higher in RZF10 (53.1%) than in FFP (27.5%). RZF10 significantly increased the N, P, K uptake compared with FFP under different N rates in both sandy and loam soils. These results suggest that the N, P and K input amount should be re-determined under RZF.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (Grant No. 2013CB127401), the National Department Public Benefit Research Foundation of China (Grant No. 201203013), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41271309) and the program of the 13th Five-Year Plan in the Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISSASIP1649). We thank FQ Hu, T Ling, YZ Liu, ST Jiang, XL Zhao and YL Wang for their help with the experiments and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaowei Liu, Huoyan Wang, Jianmin Zhou, Zhaoming Chen & Dianjun Lu

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaowei Liu & Zhaoming Chen

  3. Agriculture Committee of Jiangyan City, Taizhou, 225599, People’s Republic of China

    Dejin Zhu

  4. Golden Land Agricultural Products Cooperation, Xuancheng, 242200, People’s Republic of China

    Pingliang Deng

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  1. Xiaowei Liu
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  2. Huoyan Wang
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Correspondence to Huoyan Wang.

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Liu, X., Wang, H., Zhou, J. et al. Effect of nitrogen root zone fertilization on rice yield, uptake and utilization of macronutrient in lower reaches of Yangtze River, China. Paddy Water Environ 15, 625–638 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-017-0581-3

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