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Model-based optimisation of nitrogen and water management for wheat–maize systems in the North China Plain

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Abstract

Excessive nitrogen fertiliser application and irrigation in the North China Plain leads to nitrate accumulation in sub-soil and water pollution. HERMES, a dynamic, process-oriented soil-crop model was used to evaluate the effects of improved nitrate and water management on nitrate leaching losses. The model was validated against field studies with a winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)–summer maize (Zea mays L.) double-cropping system. A real-time model-based nitrogen fertiliser recommendation (NFR) was carried out for one wheat crop within the rotation and compared to farmers’ practice and soil mineral nitrogen (Nmin) content-based fertilisation treatments. Consequences of varying irrigation and annual weather variability on model-based NFR and further model outputs were assessed via simulation scenarios. A best-practice simulation scenario with model-based NFR and adapted irrigation was compared to reduced N and farmers’ practice treatments and to a dry and a wet scenario. Results of the real-time model-based NFR and the other treatments showed no differences in grain yield. Different fertiliser inputs led to higher nitrogen use efficiency (not significant) of the model-based NFR. Increasing amounts of irrigation resulted in significantly higher N leaching, higher N requirements and reduced yields. The impact of weather variation on model-based NFR was smaller. In the best-practice scenario simulation, nitrogen input could be reduced to 17.1 % of conventional farmers’ practice, irrigation water to 72.3 % and nitrogen leaching below 0.9 m to 1.8 % and below 2.0 m soil depth to 0.9 % within 2 years. The model-based NFR in combination with adapted irrigation had the highest potential to reduce nitrate leaching.

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Abbreviations

Corg :

Organic carbon

ETA:

Actual evapotranspiration

EX:

Exact experiment

FP:

Farmers’ practice

HY:

High yield treatment

ME:

Modelling efficiency

MAE:

Mean absolute error

MBE:

Mean bias error

NCP:

North China Plain

NFR:

Nitrogen fertiliser recommendation

Nmin :

Soil mineral nitrogen (nitrate-N (NO3 −-N) + ammonium N (NH4 +-N))

NH3 :

Ammonia

n.s.:

Not significant

NUE:

Nitrogen use efficiency

NUEA :

Agronomic nitrogen use efficiency of applied nitrogen

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Project No. 0330800C, E, F and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (MOST), Grant No. 2007DFA30850. We are grateful to the undergraduate and graduate students of CAU involved in data collection, to Sun Qin-Ping of Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Science for preliminary work on model parameters and to the reviewers for their comprehensive, very helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Institute of Landscape Systems Analysis, Eberswalder Straße 84, 15374, Müncheberg, Germany

    Anna Michalczyk & Kurt Christian Kersebaum

  2. Institute of Geoecology, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Langer Kamp 19c, 38106, Braunschweig, Germany

    Marco Roelcke

  3. Institute of Crop Science, University of Hohenheim, 70593, Stuttgart, Germany

    Tobias Hartmann

  4. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, People’s Republic of China

    Shan-Chao Yue, Xin-Ping Chen & Fu-Suo Zhang

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  1. Anna Michalczyk
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  2. Kurt Christian Kersebaum
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  3. Marco Roelcke
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  4. Tobias Hartmann
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  5. Shan-Chao Yue
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  7. Fu-Suo Zhang
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Correspondence to Anna Michalczyk.

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Michalczyk, A., Kersebaum, K.C., Roelcke, M. et al. Model-based optimisation of nitrogen and water management for wheat–maize systems in the North China Plain. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 98, 203–222 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-014-9606-0

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