Dependence of Wheat and Rice Respiration on Tissue Nitrogen and the Corresponding Net Carbon Fixation Efficiency Under Different Rates of Nitrogen Application

To quantitatively address the role of tissue N in crop respiration under various agricultural practices, and to consequently evaluate the impact of synthetic fertilizer N application on biomass production and respiration, and hence net carbon fixation efficiency （Encf）, pot and field experiments were carried out for an annual rotation of a rice-wheat cropping system from 2001 to 2003. The treatments of the pot experiments included fertilizer N application, sowing date and planting density. Different rates of N application were tested in the field experiments. Static opaque chambers were used for sampling the gas. The respiration as CO2 emission was detected by a gas chromatograph. A successive biomass clipping method was employed to determine the crop autotrophic respiration coefficient （Ra）. Results from the pot experiments revealed a linear relationship between Ra and tissue N content as Ra = 4.74N-1.45 （R^2= 0.85, P 〈 0.001）. Measurements and calculations from the field experiments indicated that fertilizer N application promoted not only biomass production but also increased the respiration of crops. A further investigation showed that the increase of carbon loss in terms of respiration owing to fertilizer N application exceeded that of net carbon gain in terms of aboveground biomass when fertilizer N was applied over a certain rate. Consequently, the Encf declined as the N application rate increased.

Determining N supplied sources and N use efficiency for peanut under applications of four forms of N fertilizers labeled by isotope^15N

Rational application of different forms of nitrogen（N） fertilizer for peanut（Arachis hypogaea L.） requires tracking the N supplied sources which are commonly not available in the differences among the three sources：root nodule,soil and fertilizer.In this study,two kinds of peanut plants（nodulated variety（Huayu 22） and non-nodulated variety（NN-1）） were choosed and four kinds of N fertilizers：urea-N（CONH_2-N）,ammonium-N（NH_4~＋-N）,nitrate-N（NO_3^--N） and NH_4~＋ ＋NO_3^--N labeled by^（15）N isotope were applied in the field barrel experiment in Chengyang Experimental Station,Shandong Province,China,to determine the N supplied sources and N use efficiency over peanut growing stages.The results showed that intensities and amounts of N supply from the three sources were all higher at middle growing stages（pegging phase and podding phase）.The accumulated amounts of N supply from root nodule,soil and fertilizer over the growing stages were 8.3,5.3 and 3.8g m^（-2） in CONH_2-N treatment,which are all significantly higher than in the other three treatments.At seedling phase,soil supplied the most N for peanut growth,then root nodule controlled the N supply at pegging phase and podding phase,but soil mainly provided N again at the last stage（pod filling phase）.For the whole growing stages,root nodule supplied the most N（47.8 and 43.0%） in CONH_2-N and NH_4~＋-N treatments,whereas soil supplied the most N（41.7 and 40.9%） in NH_4~＋ ＋NO_3^--N and NO_3^--N treatments.The N use efficiency was higher at pegging phase and podding phase,while accumulated N use efficiency over the growing stages was higher in CONH_2-N treatment（42.2%） than in other three treatments（30.4%in NH_4~＋-N treatment,29.4%in NO_3^--N treatment,29.4%in NH_4~＋ ＋NO_3^--N treatment）.In peanut growing field,application of CONH_2-N is a better way to increase the supply of N from root nodule and improve the N use efficiency.