Long-term legacy impacts of nitrogen fertilization on crop yield, nitrate accumulation, and nitrogen recovery efficiency

作者：Shuang Lei, Sajjad Raza, Annie Irshad, Yun Jiang, Ahmed S. Elrys, Zhujun Chen, Jianbin Zhou · 发表于：European Journal of Agronomy · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.eja.2025.127513 · 被引用次数：21 · 研究领域：Crop Yield and Soil Fertility、Plant nutrient uptake and metabolism、Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics

Inefficient nitrogen (N) utilizing cropping systems add substantial amount of unconsumed N fertilizer in the soil profile as residual N. High nitrate accumulation in the soil profile is detrimental to soil health and significantly contributes to groundwater pollution. This study investigated the long-term fate of residual N in the deep soil profile, including its contributions to crop yield and nitrogen recovery efficiency. A field experiment was carried out for seven years comprising winter wheat and summer maize as an annual rotation. For the initial two years (2015–2017) N fertilizer was applied at two rates (N340 including 160 kg N ha 1 for wheat and 180 kg N ha 1 for maize, N500 including 220 kg N ha 1 for wheat and 280 kg N ha 1 for maize) with and without nitrification inhibitor (dicyandiamide, DCD). While for the next five years (2017–2022) the crops were grown without N fertilization. N fertilization increased grain yield compared to control, and DCD addition caused additional increases in yield mainly at 500 kg N ha 1 . The yield did not decrease in the first year without fertilization but started to decrease considerably in later years. N fertilization increased grain N uptake by more than 100 % in all treatments in fertilized years and the first unfertilized year compared to control but decreased strongly in the second year without fertilization. The cumulative fertilizer N recovery did not differ among N fertilized treatments during fertilized years but increased...