Improving Fertilizer Use Efficiency–Methods and Strategies for the Future

Dear Colleagues, 

Nutrition of an ever-increasing world population, simultaneously with a continuous trend of decreasing arable soil areas per capita, is only feasible through the improvement of crop yields. The major limiting factor of crop yielding and its long-term stability is water availability. The influence of water depends, however, on an optimal nitrogen supply level to plant and secondary factors, which control plants’ metabolism and their ability to benefit from fertilizers. Concurrently, nitrogen fertilization is the main cause of a release of reactive nitrogen to the environment, consequently leading to a cascade of negative results such as malfunction of local ecosystems, enhancement of the global warming, and environmental acidification. Therefore, it is crucial to determine to what extent other nutrients (macro- and micronutrients) affect plants’ nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and thereby affect their potential to utilize soil water resources and take advantage of other yield-forming factors.

Phosphorus and potassium are of a particular importance with respect to their role in plants’ NUE and secondary nutrient metabolism functionality. Unlike potassium, a negative impact of phosphorus excess content levels in the environment has been well recognized (i.e., eutrophication). The use of both nutrients from mineral fertilizers differs significantly, as their geochemical cycles in soil and specific functions in plants also vary. During their uptake from soil solution, transporting and involving nutrients in specific metabolic and structure building processes, a whole range of biochemical and physiological activities take place, all jointly named as interactions. They dictate the content of nutrients and their distribution to various parts of a plant, thus impacting photosynthesis, transport of assimilates, and the quality, yield, and yield component formation. Every stage of plant growth and plant development outlines a distinctive influence of nutrients on nitrogen balance, determining not only the plant’s dry matter but also the morphology of its shoot system and roots—the main organ responsible for the uptake of water, nitrogen, and other nutrients.

A full and comprehensive recognition of agronomic and physiological determinants of effective uptake, use, and recognition of genetic determinants of their expression, with a particular focus on nitrogen, is therefore required. 

I am serving as Guest Editor for the Special Issue “Improving Fertilizer Use Efficiency—Methods and Strategies for the Future” in the journal Plants. 

I would be very pleased if you would agree to contribute a research paper or comprehensive review on any aspect related to the theme of this issue. Below, you will find some information that you may find useful when considering this invitation. Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Dr. Przemysław Barłóg
Dr. Jim Moir
Dr. Lukas Hlisnikovsky
Prof. Dr. Xinhua He
Guest Editors

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