Abstract
Enhanced efficiency nitrogen (N) fertilizers (EEFs) may improve crop recovery of fertilizer-N, but there is evidence that some EEFs cause a lag in crop growth compared to growth with standard urea. Biomass and mineral nutrient accumulation was investigated in rice fertilized with urea, urea-3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) and polymer-coated urea (PCU) to determine whether any delays in biomass production alter the accumulation patterns, and subsequent grain concentrations, of key mineral nutrients. Plant growth and mineral accumulation and partitioning to grains did not differ significantly between plants fertilized with urea or urea-DMPP. In contrast, biomass accumulation and the accumulation of phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, copper, zinc and manganese were delayed during the early growth phase of plants fertilized with PCU. However, plants in the PCU treatment ultimately compensated for this by increasing growth and nutrient uptake during the latter vegetative stages so that no differences in biomass or nutrient accumulation generally existed among N fertilizer treatments at anthesis. Delayed biomass accumulation in rice fertilized with PCU does not appear to reduce the total accumulation of mineral nutrients, nor to have any impact on grain mineral nutrition when biomass and grain yields are equal to those of rice grown with urea or urea-DMPP.
Highlights
Global crop production relies heavily on the application of nitrogen (N) fertilizers to sustain high yields, and global demand for N fertilizers is predicted to increase further over the decade [1].the N use efficiency of crop production is generally low, with crops rarely assimilating more than 50% of the fertilizer N applied [2]
A number of studies have investigated the impact of efficiency nitrogen (N) fertilizers (EEFs) vs. urea on crop yields, N use efficiency or nitrous oxide losses in dryland crops [9,10,11]
While nitrification rates were not measured in the present study, the fact that the urea-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) treatment had no impact on biomass production or N uptake compared to urea suggests that any effect of urea-DMPP on N dynamics is limited in subtropical conditions
Summary
Global crop production relies heavily on the application of nitrogen (N) fertilizers to sustain high yields, and global demand for N fertilizers is predicted to increase further over the decade [1].the N use efficiency of crop production is generally low, with crops rarely assimilating more than 50% of the fertilizer N applied [2]. A number of agronomic management strategies have been suggested for enhancing N efficiency, including optimising N budgeting, N fertilizer placement, and timing [7,8] to better match soil N supply patterns with crop N demand. Another option is to use enhanced-efficiency fertilizers (EEF), which broadly comprise controlled-release N fertilizers and N fertilizers with urease or nitrification inhibitors [2]. While N use efficiency was improved in some instances, the delayed N availability from controlled-release N fertilizers was observed to delay biomass production, and reduce yield, compared to urea application in some seasons [10]
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