Early growing season immobilisation affects post-tillering wheat nitrogen uptake from crop stubble and 15N fertiliser in a sandy soil
Pilar Muschietti Piana
A B D , Therese Marie McBeath B , Ann Marie McNeill A , Pablo Ariel Cipriotti C and Vadakattu Gupta B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
B Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Agriculture and Food, Urrbrae, SA 5064, Australia.
C School of Agriculture-Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA), University of Buenos Aires/Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Av. San Martin 4453, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, C1417DSE, Argentina.
D Corresponding author. Email: muschiet@agro.uba.ar
Soil Research 59(3) 239-252 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR20158
Submitted: 4 June 2020 Accepted: 25 September 2020 Published: 17 November 2020
Abstract
In semiarid sandy soil environments there is a dual challenge of carbon and nitrogen (N) limitation that needs to be managed to ensure timely supply of N to crops. Management of N inputs to soil using combinations of legume stubble addition and fertiliser N in cereal systems is essential to meet crop demand and maintain N in soil organic matter. The aim of this study was to assess soil mineral and biological N pools that influence N supply and N uptake of wheat at early growth stages. The recovery of 15N-labelled fertiliser by wheat was evaluated using a factorial combination of either wheat, lupin or no stubble incorporated with or without 15N fertiliser in a sandy soil system. Soil and plant samples were collected at sowing, tillering, first node and booting to monitor changes in N pools and 15N uptake by the wheat. Crop stubble incorporation one week before sowing increased biological N pools in the surface soil (0–10 cm). Early N immobilisation (sowing–tillering) in all the treatments without 15N fertiliser may have limited N availability for wheat uptake in the subsequent period (tillering–first node), when fertiliser N appeared critical to maximise N supply for plant requirements. Up to 38% of the 15N fertiliser applied at sowing was incorporated into the soil microbial biomass pool, so that fertiliser N was critical to relieve short-term inherent N limitations for both plant and microbial growth, and to supply the longer-term biological pools (microbial biomass) to support subsequent mineralisation potential. Reducing the energy limitation to the microbial pool through inputs of carbon from stubble was also critical to ensure fertiliser N supplied sufficient N to satisfy plant demand later in the growing period. These results have implications for management decisions on semiarid sandy soil systems that aim to synchronise N from inputs of legume stubbles and fertiliser with crop N demand during early growth stages of wheat.
Keywords: growth stages, Kandosol, microbial biomass, mineralisation–immobilisation, nitrogen recovery efficiency, semiarid environments.
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