Abstract
Crop production systems involving the use of high rates of fertilizer application caused significant losses of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) to the environment, resulting in air pollution and water body eutrophication. Quantitating N and P losses and its drivers in crop production systems was critical for optimizing water and fertilizer management measures to mitigate the nutrient losses. However, N and P losses estimation remains highly uncertain in the field at event scale. We here quantify daily N and P losses and its drivers (daily N and P water input, N and P uptake, N and P water surplus, water loss, etc.) in rice-rapeseed growing systems by high-frequency field experiments at event scale in Central China. Results revealed that there were significant trade-off relationships between daily uptake and surplus for N and P during the whole growing stages both for rice and rapeseed. Although it was not significantly related in heading to mature stage for rapeseed, synergies between daily input or surplus and loss were found for N. Redundancy analysis revealed that water input and leaching loss contributed most for N and P loss in rice and rapeseed. The nutrient losses in easier stages should be reduced by postponing the base fertilizer and making it in line with the crop uptake. The study enhanced our knowledge of N and P losses mechanism for crop production systems and provided a scientific basis for optimization of water and fertilizer managements and N and P loss estimation models.
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Acknowledgements
We appreciate Feng Zhou and Hongbin Liu for funding, support, and experiment design; Jianqiang Zhu, Kaiwen Liu, and Qixia Wu for experiment designs and field managements; and Qihui Wang and Luping Zhang for collecting and analyzing samples.
Funding
This work was financially supported by Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment of China (No.2018ZX07208-005), Fundamental Research Funds for Central Non-profit Scientific Institution (1610132016005), and Central Public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund (BSRF201905).
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Yali Wu conducted conceptualization. Yali Wu and Xiaoqi Kang used data for formal analysis. Hui Yu and Yuan Niu contributed to funding acquisition. Yali Wu, Jin Fu, and Xiaoying Zhan investigated the study area. Yali Wu, Jin Fu, and Xiaoqi Kang studied the methodology. Hui Yu and Yuan Niu were in charge of project administration. Yali Wu was in charge of the writing—original draft. Yali Wu and Xiaoqi Kang wrote comments and edited. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
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Highlights
• There were a significant trade-off relationships between daily uptake and surplus for N and P during the whole growing stages both for rice and oilseed rape. Although it was not significantly related in heading to mature stage for oilseed, synergies between daily input or surplus and loss were found for N.
• For N and P runoff losses, water input, water surplus, and water loss contributed to runoff losses more than fertilizer input.
• High-frequency measurements for characteristics and drivers of daily nitrogen and phosphorus losses at field scale were significantly necessary for revealing N and P losses mechanism and optimization of its estimation models.
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Wu, Y., Fu, J., Kang, X. et al. Characteristics and drivers of daily nitrogen and phosphorus losses from rice-rapeseed rotation systems in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 48785–48798 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14130-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14130-y