Free Standard AU & NZ Shipping For All Book Orders Over $80!
Register      Login
Animal Production Science Animal Production Science Society
Food, fibre and pharmaceuticals from animals
Shopping Cart: ( empty )
You are here: Home > Journals > AN > EA06098 > Fulltext
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 48(3)

Soil nitrogen dynamics in irrigated maize systems as impacted on by nitrogen and stubble management

R. B. Edis A B E , D. Chen A B , G. Wang A , D. A. Turner A B , K. Park A , M. Meyer C B and C. Kirkby D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Resource Management, The University of Melbourne, Vic. 3010, Australia.

B CRC for Greenhouse Accounting.

C CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, PB1 Aspendale, Vic. 3195, Australia.

D CSIRO Land and Water, GPO Box 1666, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.

E Corresponding author. Email: roberte@unimelb.edu.au

Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 48(3) 382-386 https://doi.org/10.1071/EA06098
Submitted: 15 March 2006  Accepted: 13 September 2007   Published: 4 February 2008

Abstract

The soil nitrogen (N) dynamics of an irrigated maize system in which stubble retention and stubble burned treatments were superimposed over treatments of varying N fertiliser rate were studied. The field site was near Whitton, New South Wales, Australia, and the work described here is part a life cycle analysis of greenhouse gas emissions from maize project. The objective of this part of the work was to quantify the fate of fertiliser N applied at the site. Field measurements of denitrification, mineral N content and recovery of 15N-labelled urea from microplots with and without ammonium thiosulfate were complimented with laboratory studies of denitrification and nitrous oxide (N2O) flux. Significantly (P < 0.05) more fertiliser N was recovered in the grain from the stubble incorporated treatment than the stubble burned treatment and there was greater recovery of fertiliser N in the soil at the end of the experiment in the stubble burned treatment. This may indicate that fertiliser N applied to the stubble burned system may be more exposed to soil-N transformations. The reason for the difference in uptake and soil residual is not clear but may be related to soil structure differences leading to less plant accessibility of N in the burned treatment. This difference may lead to more nitrous oxide emission from soil in the stubble burned treatments. Short-term (1 h) static chamber measurements in the field found a strong N-rate dependence of N2O emission rate for fertiliser rates between 0 and 300 kg N/ha. Inclusion of ammonium thiosulfate in the fertiliser formulation did not appear to have a significant impact on fertiliser N recovery.

Additional keywords: fate of urea, nitrogen losses, nitrogen transformation, nitrous oxide.


Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge assistance of David Smith and Alison Fattore in the field and in the laboratory.


References


Beer T, Meyer M, Grant T, Russell K, Kirkby C, et al. (2005) Life-cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in relation to marketing and development. Irrigate maize: from maize field to grocery store. Report HQO6A/6/F3.5, final report by CSIRO to the Australian Greenhouse Office, Grains Research and Development Corporation and CRC for Greenhouse Accounting.

Cai G, Chen DL, White RE, Fan XH, Pacholski A, Zhu ZL, Ding H (2002) Gaseous nitrogen losses from urea applied to maize on a calcareous fluvo-aquic soil in the North China Plain. Australian Journal of Soil Research 40, 737–748.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Firestone MK (1980) Nitrous oxide from denitrification: factors controlling its biological production. Science 208, 749–751.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1

Freney JR, Chen DL, Mosier AR, Rochester IJ, Constable GA, Chalk PM (1993) Use of nitrification inhibitors to increase fertilizer nitrogen recovery and lint yield in irrigated cotton. Fertilizer Research 34, 37–44.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | open url image1

Goos RJ (1985) Identification of ammonium thiosulfate as a nitrification and urease inhibitor. Soil Science Society of America Journal 49, 232–235.
|  CAS |
open url image1

Li Y, Chen D, Zhang Y, Edis R (2005) Comparison of three modelling approaches for simulating denitrification and nitrous oxide emissions from a loam-textured arable soil. Global Biochemical Cycles 19, 1–15. open url image1

Mahmood T, Ali R, Azam F, Malik KA (1999) Comparison of two versions of acetylene inhibition/soil core method for measuring denitrification loss from an irrigated wheat field. Biology and Fertility of Soils 29, 328–331.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | open url image1

Mahmood T, Ali R, Azam F, Malik KA (2005) Seasonal pattern of denitrification under an irrigated wheat-maize cropping system fertilized with urea and farmyard manure in different combinations. Biology and Fertility of Soils 42, 1–9.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

McSwiney CP, Robertson GP (2005) Nonlinear response of N2O flux to incremental fertilizer addition in a continuous maize (Zea mays L.) cropping system. Global Change Biology 11, 1712–1719.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Mosier AR, Meyer WS, Melhuish FM (1986) Effect of irrigation method on the recovery of 15N fertilizer in a slowly permeable clay soil cropped with maize. Australian Journal of Soil Research 24, 1–10.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Rayment GE, Higginson FR (1992) ‘Australian laboratory handbook of soil and water chemical methods.’ (Inkata Press: Melbourne)

Ryden JC, Skinner JH, Nixon DJ (1987) Soil core incubation system for the field measurement of denitrification using acetylene-inhibition. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 19, 753–757.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Turner D, Chen D, Edis R, Li Y, Kelly K, Luening R, Galbally I, Phillips F (2005) Spatial variability of N2O emissions from irrigated dairy pasture. In ‘Proceedings of the 3rd international nitrogen conference, Nanjing, China’. pp. 760–767. (Science Press Inc.: Monmouth Junction, NJ)