Urease Inhibitors Effects on the Nitrogen Use Efficiency in a Maize–Wheat Rotation with or without Water Deficit

Raúl Allende-Montalbán,Diana Martín-Lammerding,María Del Mar Delgado,Miguel A Porcel,José L Gabriel

doi:10.3390/agriculture11070684

Raúl Allende-Montalbán, Diana Martín-Lammerding + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11070684

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Abstract

The use of urease inhibitors in irrigated systems decreases both soil ammonium (NH4+) and nitrate (NO3−) availability, and, thus, could be an easy tool to reduce N loss due to ammonia volatilization and NO3− leaching. The main goal of this experiment was to assess the effect of urease inhibitors on N use efficiency, N losses, and their economic impact in a maize-wheat field experiment. In this study, 10 treatments were compared, combining the urea fertilizer with or without urease inhibitor, applied in one or two dressings, and under optimal or sub-optimal irrigation. A single application of urease inhibitor (IN1d), coupled with the conventional urea, helped to reduce the nitrate leaching risk both during the maize period (even when compared to the two dressing treatment) and after harvest. In addition, this improvement was achieved together with an increase in economic benefit, even when compared with the application of the same amount of regular urea split into two dressings. Under low water availability systems, the benefits of applying urease inhibitors increased with respect to the application of regular urea, making this technique a very promising strategy for adaptation to climate change in arid and semiarid regions.

Highlights

IntroductionThe efficiency of urea application is low due to its high hydrolysis rate, which generates more mineral N than the crop can assimilate in the first stage
Some of this N can be immobilized in the soil, but the excess is lost through ammonia (NH3 ) volatilization or nitrate (NO3 − ) leaching [4]
This effect was more evident in the nutritional balance index (NBI) index

Summary

Introduction

The efficiency of urea application is low due to its high hydrolysis rate, which generates more mineral N than the crop can assimilate in the first stage Some of this N can be immobilized in the soil, but the excess is lost through ammonia (NH3 ) volatilization or nitrate (NO3 − ) leaching [4]. To avoid losses due to NH3 volatilization, the tactic of incorporating NH4 + into the soil is generally used, either by burying the fertilizer with mechanical labor, by introducing it with irrigation or taking advantage of rain, or by injecting the fertilizer directly into the soil. These processes, except when in artificial soils, are slow and expensive

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