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Improving Nitrogen-Use Efficiency at the Cropping System Scale: Agronomic and Genetic Aspects

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A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 10402

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Gilles Lemaire

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Guest Editor

Honorary Director of Research (retired) INRAE, 86500 Lusignan, France
Interests: grassland and crop ecophysiology; crop mineral nutrition and fertilization; nitrogen–water interactions; grazing ecology; integrated crop livestock systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Ignacio A. Ciampitti

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Guest Editor

Department of Agronomy, Kansas State University, 1712 Claflin Road, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA
Interests: cropping systems; crop physiology; crop growth modeling; remote sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) by crops is an important objective for solving the trade-off between improving crop productivity in agrosystems and reducing environmental impacts. Recent knowledge in plant physiology for plant N uptake, N allocation within plants and the canopy, and N use for plant growth and yield formation and in soil biology for the dynamics of N availability for roots in relation to other soil resources, such as P, K, S, or water, can now be mobilized for a better understanding of the capacity of crops to capture, allocate, and use N for optimizing yields. The important challenge is to develop benchmarked procedures for crop phenotyping in order to identify and quantify relevant traits functionally related to crop performances and to use this procedure for (i) analyzing the role and impacts of farming systems and/or (ii) evaluating the impact of plant breeding criteria and programs on NUE improvement in cropping systems. The use of crop N nutrition diagnosis methods as tools for crop phenotyping and for the analysis of crop performance in terms of both N-uptake efficiency, i.e., the capacity of plants to efficiently absorb soil N to satisfy their nutrient demand, and N-conversion efficiency, i.e., the capacity of plants to efficiently allocate absorbed N to different plant compartments and to efficiently use it for yield and quality. Attention should be focused on root–soil functioning as a key point of N-uptake efficiency in relation to other nutrient (P, K, S) and water resources that can limit crop performances.

Dr. Gilles Lemaire
Prof. Dr. Ignacio A. Ciampitti
Guest Editors

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Keywords

nitrogen-use efficiency
nitrogen-uptake efficiency
nitrogen-conversion efficiency
nitrogen allocation in plants
crop N status diagnosis
nitrogen nutrition index
yield components
yield quality
nitrogen–water interaction
N–P, N–S, and nitrogen–temperature interactions

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 1834 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Agronomic Strategies to Improve N Efficiency Indices in Organic Durum Wheat Grown in Mediterranean Area

by Federica Carucci, Giuseppe Gatta, Anna Gagliardi, Pasquale De Vita, Simone Bregaglio and Marcella Michela Giuliani

Plants 2021, 10(11), 2444; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10112444 - 12 Nov 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 1885

Abstract

Organic farming systems are often constrained by limited soil nitrogen (N) availability. Here we evaluated the effect of foliar organic N and sulphur (S), and selenium (Se) application on durum wheat, considering N uptake, utilization efficiency (NUtE), grain yield, and protein concentration as target variables. Field trials were conducted in 2018 and 2019 on two old (Cappelli and old Saragolla) and two modern (Marco Aurelio and Nadif) Italian durum wheat varieties. Four organic fertilization strategies were evaluated, i.e., the control (CTR, dry blood meal at sowing), the application of foliar N (CTR + N) and S (CTR + S), and their joint use (CTR + NS). Furthermore, a foliar application of sodium selenate was evaluated. Three factors—variety, fertilization strategies and selenium application—were arranged in a split-split-plot design and tested in two growing seasons. The modern variety Marco Aurelio led to the highest NUtE and grain yield in both seasons. S and N applications had a positive synergic effect, especially under drought conditions, on pre-anthesis N uptake, N translocation, NUtE, and grain yield. Se treatment improved post-anthesis N uptake and NUtE, leading to 17% yield increase in the old variety Cappelli, and to 13% and 14% yield increase in Marco Aurelio and Nadif, mainly attributed to NUtE increase. This study demonstrated that the synergistic effect of foliar applications could improve organic durum wheat yields in Mediterranean environments, especially on modern varieties. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Improving Nitrogen-Use Efficiency at the Cropping System Scale: Agronomic and Genetic Aspects)

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18 pages, 3020 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Dry Matter Gains in Maize Kernels Are Dependent on Their Nitrogen Accumulation Rates and Duration during Grain Filling

by Lía B. Olmedo Pico and Tony J. Vyn

Plants 2021, 10(6), 1222; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10061222 - 15 Jun 2021

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2935

Abstract

Progressive N assimilation by maize kernels may constrain dry matter (DM) accumulation and final kernel weights (KW). We sought to better understand whole-plant and kernel N mechanisms associated with incremental DM and N accumulation patterns in kernels during grain fill. Maize was grown with multiple fertilizer N rates and N timings or plant densities to achieve a wide N availability gradient. Whole-plant DM and N sampling enabled determination of apparent N nutrition sufficiency at flowering (NNI_R1) and when linear-fill began (NNI_R3). Linear-plateau, mixed-effects models were fitted to kernel DM and N accumulation data collected weekly from early R3. Higher N supply, regardless of application timing or plant density, increased grain-fill duration (GFD) and, more inconsistently, effective grain-filling rate (EGFR). Kernels accumulated DM and N for similar durations. Both final KW and kernel N content increased consistently with N availability mostly because of higher kernel N accumulation rates (KNAR) and duration (KNAD). Both NNI_R1 and NNI_R3 were positively associated with KNAD and KNAR, and less strongly with EGFR. These results confirm the direct role of kernel N accumulation, in addition to prior NNI, in limiting KW gain rates and duration during grain filling. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Improving Nitrogen-Use Efficiency at the Cropping System Scale: Agronomic and Genetic Aspects)

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Review

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18 pages, 16506 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperEditor’s ChoiceReview

Crop Mass and N Status as Prerequisite Covariables for Unraveling Nitrogen Use Efficiency across Genotype-by-Environment-by-Management Scenarios: A Review

by Gilles Lemaire and Ignacio Ciampitti

Plants 2020, 9(10), 1309; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9101309 - 2 Oct 2020

Cited by 60 | Viewed by 4408

Abstract

Due to the asymptotic nature of the crop yield response curve to fertilizer N supply, the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE, yield per unit of fertilizer applied) of crops declines as the crop N nutrition becomes less limiting. Therefore, it is difficult to directly compare the NUE of crops according to genotype-by-environment-by-management interactions in the absence of any indication of crop N status. The determination of the nitrogen nutrition index (NNI) allows the estimation of crop N status independently of the N fertilizer application rate. Moreover, the theory of N dilution in crops indicates clearly that crop N uptake is coregulated by (i) soil N availability and (ii) plant growth rate capacity. Thus, according to genotype-by-environment-by-management interactions leading to variation in potential plant growth capacity, N demand for a given soil N supply condition would be different; consequently, the NUE of the crop would be dissimilar. We demonstrate that NUE depends on the crop potential growth rate and N status defined by the crop NNI. Thus, providing proper context to NUE changes needs to be achieved by considering comparisons with similar crop mass and NNI to avoid any misinterpretation. The latter needs to be considered not only when analyzing genotype-by-environment-by-management interactions for NUE but for other resource use efficiency inputs such as water use efficiency (colimitation N–water) under field conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Improving Nitrogen-Use Efficiency at the Cropping System Scale: Agronomic and Genetic Aspects)

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