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Nitrogen application affects grain yield by altering the soil moisture and nitrate‐N of maize/wheat cropping system in dryland areas of northwest China *
Author(s) -
Qiang Shengcai,
Zhang Fucang,
Zhang Yan,
Yan Shicheng,
Fan Junliang,
Xiang Youzhen
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
irrigation and drainage
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.421
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1531-0361
pISSN - 1531-0353
DOI - 10.1002/ird.2532
Subject(s) - agronomy , cropping system , growing season , nitrogen , environmental science , dry matter , water content , moisture , nitrate , fertilizer , field experiment , rotation system , yield (engineering) , crop , chemistry , biology , materials science , organic chemistry , metallurgy , geotechnical engineering , engineering
Few studies have investigated the effects of N application in a wheat/maize rotation system on soil moisture, residual nitrate‐N (NR), growth, grain yield (GY) and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in northwest China under dryland conditions. A five‐season (June 2013–October 2015) field experiment was conducted using N fertilizer rates of 0, 86, 172 and 258 kg ha −1 during the summer maize growing season, and 0, 105, 210 and 315 kg ha −1 during the winter wheat growing season. Soil NR increased sharply as N rates rose, but soil moisture storage decreased. Summer maize under the high N treatment suffered from increased NR levels and low soil water at the vegetative stage. The dry matter levels increased as the N supply rose during the wheat season. When the N application rate was below 210 and 172 kg N ha −1 for wheat and maize, respectively, yield increased as the N application rose, but excessive N applications negatively affected maize and wheat grain yields. NUE decreased significantly as time progressed and N rates increased. The most appropriate N rates were 172 kg N ha −1 for maize and 210 kg N ha −1 for wheat, which led to relatively good soil moisture uptake and NR conditions.