Abstract
Purpose
The application of soil conditioner has become one of the most important strategies to reduce nitrogen (N) losses from agricultural fields. However, it is still unclear about the effect of conditioners on soil profile N accumulation and crop N utilization under different irrigation levels.
Materials and methods
In this study, the effects of combination of N fertilizer (255 kg/ha) and different doses of soil conditioner (mixture of anionic polyacrylamide, polyvinyl alcohol, and manganese sulfate) (0 (N), 0.008 (P1N), 0.016 (P2N), and 0.024 (P3N) g/kg) on soil - oat crop N transport and oat crop N utilization were explored under different irrigation levels (conventional irrigation volume (4.1 × 106 L/ha), W100; 80% of the conventional irrigation volume (3.28 × 106 L/ha), W80).
Results and discussion
The combination of conditioner and N fertilizer increased soil capillary moisture capacity (CWC), field capacity (FC), total porosity (TP), and capillary porosity (CP) in the 0–40 cm (W80) and 20–60 cm (W100) soil layers, and reduced non-capillary porosity (N-CP) of the 0–40 cm soil layer (W100). Besides, it also positively affected the total N storage (STN) and nitrate N storage (SNN) in the 0–80 cm soil layer, especially under the W100 condition (the STN and SNN in the combination treatments of conditioner and N fertilizer (P1N, P2N, and P3N) increased by 5.5%–9.2% and 14.6%–16.3%, respectively compared with those in the single N treatment). Correlation analysis of N fractions and soil physical properties showed that STN was significantly positively correlated with CP; SNN was significantly negatively correlated with CP under the W80 condition, but there was no significant correlation between them under the W100 condition. Finally, the combination of different doses of conditioner and N fertilizer increased grain N accumulation and oat yield, especially under the W80 condition.
Conclusions
The addition of conditioner had a higher N loss risk under the W100 condition than under the W80 condition, although it was beneficial to reducing N loss (31.8%–32.2%) and increasing inorganic N accumulation (14.5%–16.0%) during the reproductive period. We suggest that the combination of 12 kg/ha conditioner, 255 kg/ha N, and 80% of the conventional irrigation volume could be widely used to increase oat crop yield and reduce production cost and environmental pollution risk in the study area.
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Data availability
All data during the study are available from the first author / corresponding author (Xiaoming Tian, txm7458103@163.com) by request.
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Thanks for the financial supports from the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei (D2020405002), the S&T Program of Hebei (21326405D), and the Hebei North University Project (JYT2021003).
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Tian, X., Suo, W., Wang, J. et al. Effects of soil conditioner on soil-crop nitrogen transport and crop nitrogen utilization under different irrigation levels in China. J Soils Sediments 23, 3806–3819 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03592-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03592-x