Influence of Unflooded Mulching Cultivation on Nitrogen Uptake and Utilization of Fertilizer Nitrogen by Rice

Abstract

Through unflooded mulching in field plots and 15nitrogen microplot tracer experiments, nitrogen (N) uptake of rice and N utilization have been studied compared with normal irrigation cultivation. The results showed that N uptake of unflooded rice and N derived from fertilizer (NDFF) of root, stem, and grain under mulching cultivation were lower than that under cultivation without mulching. However, the NDFF of rice under unflooded cultivation was higher than that under normal irrigation cultivation. The N utilization has been greatly enhanced under unflooded cultivation without mulching and unflooded plastic film cultivation with mulching as compared with normal irrigation. At the same time, there was no significant difference on the N uptake of unflooded rice among different ways of mulching cultivations. During the growth period of rice, no prominent differences were found in the soil residue, recovery, and N losses of fertilizer except the N uptake of rice between unflooded mulching and normal irrigation. The yield of rice under film mulching and straw mulching cultivation was higher than that of cultivation without mulching in the condition of unflooded cultivation, whereas the yield of rice under irrigation cultivation was higher than that under unflooded cultivation.