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Effect of interactions between carbon dioxide enrichment and NH +4 /NO 3 ratio on pH of culturing nutrient solution, growth and vigor of tomato root system

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Frontiers of Agriculture in China

Abstract

A growth chamber experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of NH +4 /NO 3 ratio and elevated CO2 concentration on the pH in nutrient solution, growth and root vigor system of tomato seedling roots, which attempts to understand whether the elevated CO2 concentration can alleviate the harmful effects of higher NH +4 -N concentration in nutrient solutions on the tomato root system. Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. var. Hezuo 906) was grown in pots with nutrient solutions varying in NH +4 /NO 3 ratio (0:1, 1:3, 1:1, 3:1 and 1:0) and the growth chambers were supplied with ambient (360 μL·L−1) or elevated CO2 concentration (720 μL·L−1). The results showed that the pH changed with the growth process and CO2 concentration increased. At both CO2 levels, pH increased when 100% NO 3 -N was supplied and decreased in other treatments. The pH decrease in the nutrient solution was directly correlated to the NH +4 -N proportion. The pH value was more reduced in 100% NH +4 -N nutrient solution than increased in the 100% NO 3 -N nutrient solution. CO2 enrichment increased the dry weight of shoots and roots, root vigor system, total absorbing area and active absorbing area of tomato seedlings. All the measurement indexes above were increased in the elevated CO2 concentration treatment with the NO 3 proportion increase in the nutrient solutions. Thus, under the elevated CO2 concentration, the dry weights of shoots and roots, root vigor system, total root absorbing area and active absorbing area were found to be inversely correlated to NH +4 /NO 3 ratio, leading to about 65.8%, 78.0%, 18.9%, 12.9% and 18.9% increase, respectively, compared with that under the ambient CO2 concentration. Our results indicated that tomato seedling roots may benefit mostly from CO2 enrichment when 100% NO 3 -N nutrient solutions was supplied, but the CO2 concentration elevation did not alleviate the harmful effects when 100% NH +4 -N was supplied.

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Correspondence to Juan Li or Jianmin Zhou.

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Translated from Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer Science, 2007, 13(5): 865–870 [译自: 植物营养与肥料学报]

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Li, J., Zhou, J. Effect of interactions between carbon dioxide enrichment and NH +4 /NO 3 ratio on pH of culturing nutrient solution, growth and vigor of tomato root system. Front. Agric. China 2, 296–300 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11703-008-0046-y

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