Plant Soil Environ., 2019, 65(10):483-489 | DOI: 10.17221/315/2019-PSE

Experimental warming reduces fertilizer nitrogen use efficiency in a double rice cropping systemOriginal Paper

Taotao Yang¹, Yanhua Zeng¹, Yanni Sun¹, Jun Zhang², Xueming Tan¹, Yongjun Zeng¹, Shan Huang^*,1, Xiaohua Pan¹

¹ Ministry of Education and Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology, Ecology and Genetic Breeding, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, P.R. China

² Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China

Climate warming significantly affects nitrogen (N) cycling, while its effects on the use efficiency of fertilizer N are still unclear in agroecosystems. In the present study, we examined for the first time the response of fertilizer N use efficiency to experimental warming using ¹⁵N labeling with a free-air temperature increase facility (infrared heaters) in a double rice cropping system. ¹⁵N-urea was applied in micro-plots to trace the uptake and loss of fertilizer N. Results showed that moderate warming (i.e. an increase of 1.4°C and 2.1°C in canopy temperature for early and late rice, respectively) did not significantly affect grain yield and biomass. Warming significantly reduced N uptake from fertilizer for both early and late rice, while increased N uptake from soil. The N recovery rate of fertilizer was reduced from 35.5% in the control and to 32.3% in the warming treatments for early rice and from 47.2% to 43.1% for late rice, respectively. Warming did not affect fertilizer N loss rate in the early rice season, whereas significantly increased it from 38.9% in the control and to 42.7% in the warming treatments in the late rice season, respectively. Therefore, we suggest that climate warming may reduce fertilizer N use efficiency and increase N losses to the environment in the rice paddy.

Keywords: Oryza sativa L.; climate change; macronutrient; mineral fertilization; nitrogen isotope

Published: October 31, 2019  Show citation