Nutrient Cycling and Nitrogen Management in Agroecosystem

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Farming Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2024) | Viewed by 5157

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Bangor College China, A Joint Unit of Bangor University and Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China
Interests: restoration ecology; plant soil interaction; nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems; nutrient deficiency and stress; carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition; GHG emissions; root and canopy development; soil conservation and biogeochemistry, environmental chemistry; carbon sequestration; soil microbial community composition; integrated cropping system; agroforestry and intercropping
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Soil is fundamental to the production of food, crops, feed, fiber, fuels, and many essential ecosystem services, as well as to the regulation of water resources and climate. Most global human food production depends on the soil. Through the ages, farming practices have led to accelerated soil fertility depletion through erosion and nutrient removal. The world population will increase by an estimated 9 to 10 billion by 2050, and over 2 billion already depend on synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer. Synthetic N fertilizer is mainly used to increase crop yields. However, most of the N fertilizer that is applied to agricultural crops is often lost through leaching and gaseous forms. Moreover, nutrient cycling in soil profiles suggests that active and/or readily mineralizable fractions of soil organic matter (SOM) are coupled to plant-available nutrient pools through the processes of mineralization and immobilization. The factors that control these processes are influenced by different agricultural management practices and represent potential controlling factors for the management of nutrient cycles in agroecosystems. However, agroecosystems significantly depend on inputs of N to sustain productivity. Therefore, proper agricultural management practices should be put in place to increase the N availability in agroecosystems.The main aim of this Special Issue is to present original research articles, reviews, mini-reviews, perspective articles, and meta-analysis studies on all aspects of integrated and sustainable agricultural management practices to control the nutrient cycle, particularly the N cycle in agroecosystems. 

Dr. Awais Shakoor
Dr. Taimoor Hassan Farooq
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • nutrient cycling
  • nutrients management
  • mineralization
  • immobilization
  • agricultural management practices
  • land management
  • forest ecosystem
  • agroecosystem

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 1609 KiB  
Article
Field Screening of Wheat Cultivars for Enhanced Growth, Yield, Yield Attributes, and Nitrogen Use Efficiencies
by Sandeep Gawdiya, Dinesh Kumar, Yashbir Singh Shivay, Babanpreet Kour, Rajesh Kumar, Siyaram Meena, Ravi Saini, Kamal Choudhary, Nadhir Al-Ansari, Abed Alataway, Ahmed Z. Dewidar and Mohamed A. Mattar
Agronomy 2023, 13(8), 2011; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13082011 - 29 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1602
Abstract
Optimizing nitrogen (N) inputs is crucial for maximizing wheat yield and ensuring environmental sustainability. Wheat’s economic significance in India calls for a comprehensive evaluation of its ecological implications to develop a resilient production system. This study aimed to identify and evaluate ten wheat [...] Read more.
Optimizing nitrogen (N) inputs is crucial for maximizing wheat yield and ensuring environmental sustainability. Wheat’s economic significance in India calls for a comprehensive evaluation of its ecological implications to develop a resilient production system. This study aimed to identify and evaluate ten wheat cultivars for their yield and N-use efficiency under varying nitrogen inputs (control (N0), half of the recommended nitrogen (N75), and the recommended nitrogen (N150)) using the surface application of neem-oil-coated urea. All N inputs were applied in three splits, basal, crown root initiation, and tillering stages, and an experiment was conducted in a split-plot design. The application of N150 gave the highest dry matter accumulation (DMA) at harvesting stage (AHS) (871 g m−2), seed/spike (60), grain yield (GY = 7.4 t ha−1), straw yield (SY = 8.9 t ha−1), harvest index (HI = 45.2%), protein (12.5%), and total uptake of N (TUN) (223 kg ha−1) by the cultivar ‘HD 3249’, being closely followed by the cultivar ‘HD3117’. Six cultivars (‘HD 3298’, ‘HD 3117’, ‘HD 3249’, ‘PBW 550’, ‘HD 3086’, ‘HD 2967’) out of the ten cultivars evaluated responded well to different input treatments with respect to the grain yield efficiency index (GYEI ≥ 1). Regarding N input, N75 and N150 recorded the highest increases in plant height, AHS (16.5%; 21.2%), dry matter accumulation (DMA) at 30 days after sowing (DAS) (37.5%; 64%), DMA-60 DAS (42%; 53%), DMA-90 DAS (39.5%; 52.5%), TILL-30 DAS (19.8%; 26.4%), TILL-60 DAS (33.3%; 44%), TILL-90 DAS (37.2%; 47.2%), seed/spike (8%; 10%), 1000-grain weight (7.8%; 12.2%), and protein content (23.3%; and 33%) when compared with N0. Furthermore, the application of N75 and N150 improved GY (72.1%; 142.6%), SY (61.1%; 110.6%), BY (65.5%; 123%), and HI by 4.4% and 9%, respectively, over N0. Nitrogen addition (N75 and N150) also significantly increased total nitrogen uptake (104.7%; 205.6%), respectively, compared to N0. The correlation analysis revealed a positive association among most of the crop parameters. Overall, our research results suggest that the cultivars ‘HD 3249’ and ‘HD 3117’ have the potential to be effective options for improving N utilization efficiency, grain yield, and GYEI in North-West India. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrient Cycling and Nitrogen Management in Agroecosystem)
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14 pages, 8251 KiB  
Article
Spatial Variability Analysis of Wheat Nitrogen Yield Response: A Case Study of Henan Province, China
by Xiaojie Feng, Yixin Li, Yanfeng Zhao and Jie Chen
Agronomy 2023, 13(7), 1796; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13071796 - 5 Jul 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1001
Abstract
The overapplication of nitrogen to wheat reduces profits and has adverse environmental consequences. Machine learning techniques are employed to identify the factors that hold the most potential in improving nitrogen recommendations. The database used in our analysis consisted of a formula fertilization project, [...] Read more.
The overapplication of nitrogen to wheat reduces profits and has adverse environmental consequences. Machine learning techniques are employed to identify the factors that hold the most potential in improving nitrogen recommendations. The database used in our analysis consisted of a formula fertilization project, the second soil census of China, and cultivated land fertility evaluation. The results showed that the wheat nitrogen yield response was mainly concentrated around 1300–2400 kg/ha in Henan Province, with the highest values observed in the southern and eastern regions and the lowest in the northern region. The soil nitrogen content, nitrogen fertilizer, wet nitrogen deposition, dry nitrogen deposition, and soil nitrogen supply capacity were mainly concentrated around 0.65–1.30 g/kg, 173–203 kg N/ha, 15–39 kg N/(ha yr), 7–49 kg N/(ha yr), and 105–150 kg N/ha, respectively. When comparing the spatial distribution of the soil nitrogen content, nitrogen fertilizer, and nitrogen deposition, we found that the soil nitrogen supply capacity emerged as the predominant factor controlling wheat grain production. Soil types, precipitation, and temperature demonstrated a notable positive correlation with the soil nitrogen supply capacity. Given this background, it would be unreasonable to rely solely on the soil nitrogen content as the standard for fertilizer management. Particularly in high-yield fields, our focus should be on preserving optimal soil fertility by placing greater emphasis on the soil nitrogen supply capacity rather than simply reducing fertilizer application during wheat growth. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrient Cycling and Nitrogen Management in Agroecosystem)
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16 pages, 2351 KiB  
Article
Nutrient Cycling and Nitrogen Management Impact of Sowing Method and Soil Water Consumption on Yield Nitrogen Utilization in Dryland Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)
by Pengcheng Ding, Hafeez Noor, Anis Ali Shah, Zhouzuo Yan, Peijie Sun, Limin Zhang, Linghong Li, Xian Jun, Min Sun, Hosam O. Elansary and Zhiqiang Gao
Agronomy 2023, 13(6), 1528; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13061528 - 31 May 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1408
Abstract
The current study was designed to investigate the best sowing method that encourages dry matter accumulation to increase dryland wheat yield, grain quality, and protein content. Three different seeding methods were applied: (I) wide-space sowing (WSS), (II) furrow sowing, and (III) drill sowing. [...] Read more.
The current study was designed to investigate the best sowing method that encourages dry matter accumulation to increase dryland wheat yield, grain quality, and protein content. Three different seeding methods were applied: (I) wide-space sowing (WSS), (II) furrow sowing, and (III) drill sowing. Two nitrogen levels, namely low nitrogen (N1) and high nitrogen (N2), were also applied, and the pure nitrogen was 150 kg ha−1 and 210 kg ha−1, respectively. Wide-space sowing significantly increased the ears and yield production, the maximum, and average grain-filling rate while furrow sowing delayed the disappearance of the population after anthesis, increased the duration of grain filling, and then significantly increased the number of spikes and the 1000-grain weight increased, respectively. Drill sowing compared to wide-space sowing significantly increased the content of nitrogen in the grain of the nitrogen harvest index, and it increased the content of protein and the yield of protein, respectively. In addition, the grain yield and protein yield of wide-precision sowing were significantly higher than that of trench sowing. Our findings suggest that wide-space sowing was beneficial for increasing water consumption during the growth period, increasing the tiller dynamics, improving the plant dry matter quality, and increasing the grain protein. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrient Cycling and Nitrogen Management in Agroecosystem)
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