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The effects of nitrogen fertilizer rate, cultivation and straw disposal on the nitrate leaching from a shallow limestone soil cropped with winter barley
Author(s) -
Johnson P.A.,
Smith P.N.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
soil use and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.709
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1475-2743
pISSN - 0266-0032
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-2743.1996.tb00961.x
Subject(s) - straw , leaching (pedology) , plough , agronomy , nitrogen , nitrogen balance , monoculture , fertilizer , nitrate , environmental science , chemistry , zoology , soil water , biology , soil science , organic chemistry
. Monoculture winter barley was grown for 5 years with 80 or 160 kg/ha of fertilizer nitrogen (N) and established by either shallow cultivation (straw removed) or ploughing (straw incorporated) in a replicated 2 ± 2 split plot experiment. The lower N rate reduced average grain yield from 6.85 t/ha to 5.61 t/ha. The cultivation/straw disposal system had no effect on yield. Halving the N rate reduced the amount of N removed in the crop by an average of 40 kg/ha and reduced the amount of nitrogen leached by 11 kg/ha per year. Using a shallow cultivation system for crop establishment, following the removal of straw, initially reduced N leaching compared to ploughing in the straw, but in the later years of the experiment losses were similar. Over the five years the full N rate with ploughing system resulted in a small positive nitrogen balance of 66 kg/ha, but all other treatment combinations resulted in a negative balance.