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Water and Nitrogen Management in the Soil–Crop System (3rd Edition)
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Water and Nitrogen Management in the Soil–Crop System (3rd Edition)

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Physiology and Crop Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 April 2025 | Viewed by 1811

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Kelin Hu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
Interests: C and N cycling; soil physical processes; crop modelling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Puyu Feng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Interests: agrometeorology; sustainable agriculture; climate change impacts
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water and nitrogen (N) fertilizer plays important roles in improving crop yield and quality in agricultural production. With the increase in agricultural water consumption and N fertilization, water shortage and environmental pollution caused by N losses have become common problems around the world. Therefore, it is very important how to promote crop productivity while minimizing the potential negative environmental impact. This Special Issue invites original research, technology report, methods, opinion, perspectives and invited reviews and mini reviews on water and N management in the soil–crop system. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: 1) the effects of different water and N management practices on crop yield, N fates, water and N use efficiencies; 2) optimized irrigation practices, cropping systems and agronomic strategies for improving water use efficiency and crop productivity; 2) innovative and novel N fertilizer application technologies, such as 4R technology (right source, right rate, right time, right place) and fertigation techniques for field or facility crops; 3）modeling water and N processes in soil–crop systems and related decision-making processes; and 4）water and N management for addressing climate change impacts.

Prof. Dr. Kelin Hu
Dr. Puyu Feng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • crop yield
  • cropping system
  • irrigation scheduling
  • irrigation method
  • water use efficiency
  • nitrogen management
  • nitrogen losses
  • nitrogen use efficiency
  • modeling
  • decision-making
  • climate change

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 3128 KiB  
Article
Straw Returning Methods Affects Macro-Aggregate Content and Organic Matter Content in Black Soils: Meta-Analysis and Comprehensive Validation
by Kangmeng Liu, Yu Hu, Yumei Li, Lei Wang, Liang Jin, Lianfeng Cai, Xiaoxiao Wu, Zhenguo Yang, Yan Li and Dan Wei
Plants 2024, 13(23), 3284; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13233284 - 22 Nov 2024
Abstract
Straw returning into the soil is a crucial method for boosting soil carbon levels. To research the influence of straw return practices on soil aggregates and organic matter content within the farmlands of the Northeast Black Soil Region, the objective was to clarify [...] Read more.
Straw returning into the soil is a crucial method for boosting soil carbon levels. To research the influence of straw return practices on soil aggregates and organic matter content within the farmlands of the Northeast Black Soil Region, the objective was to clarify the varying impacts of these practices on soil carbon enhancement. In this study, 89 pertinent papers were acquired through a rigorous literature compilation. Meta-analysis and the linear regression method were employed to analyze the influence of field return methods, their duration on soil water-stable aggregates, and their organic matter content. Furthermore, the study delved into the trends in the variation of aggregates and organic matter in relation to mean annual temperature and precipitation. Our results showed that the straw-returning method has been discovered to predominantly bolster soil organic matter by altering the proportions of macro-aggregate content. Specifically, straw incorporation has led to a notable enhancement in the content of macro-aggregates (57.14%) and micro-aggregates (20.29%), in addition to augmenting the content of macro-, small, and micro-aggregate organic matter by 13.22%, 16.43%, and 15.08%, respectively. The most significant increase in large agglomerates was witnessed in straw return over a period of more than 5 years (115.17%), as well as shallow mixing return (87.32%). Meanwhile, the highest increase in the organic matter content of large agglomerates was recorded in straw return over 5 years (12.60%) and deep mixing return (8.72%). In the field validation experiment, a period of seven years of straw return significantly boosted the macro-aggregate content across various soil layers, ranging from 11.78% to 116.21%. Furthermore, among the various climatic factors, the primary determinants of disparities in study outcomes were the average annual temperature and average annual precipitation. Specifically, lower precipitation and higher temperatures were conducive to the enhancement of macro-aggregate formation and organic matter content. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water and Nitrogen Management in the Soil–Crop System (3rd Edition))
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16 pages, 1628 KiB  
Article
Modeling the Effect of Milk Vetch–Rice Rotation on N Runoff Loss in the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River
by Guodong Zhou, Cuilan Wei, Penghui Li and Hao Liang
Plants 2024, 13(22), 3160; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13223160 - 10 Nov 2024
Viewed by 390
Abstract
The winter planting of green manure (GM) is widely used in South China to reduce chemical nitrogen (N) fertilizer use, improve soil fertility, and maintain rice yields, but its effect on N runoff loss in paddy fields remains unclear. This study combines multi-site [...] Read more.
The winter planting of green manure (GM) is widely used in South China to reduce chemical nitrogen (N) fertilizer use, improve soil fertility, and maintain rice yields, but its effect on N runoff loss in paddy fields remains unclear. This study combines multi-site field experiments with a process model (WHCNS-Rice) to assess how GM with reduced N fertilizer impacts N runoff loss and its forms in the Yangtze River’s middle and lower reaches, considering different rainfall years. The network field experiments included four treatments: conventional fertilization (FR), conventional fertilization plus straw return (FRS), GM with a 40% N reduction (MR), and GM-straw combined return with a 40% N reduction (MRS). Monitoring the results showed that compared to the winter fallow treatment, the GM treatments reduced the peak and average total N (TN) concentrations by 11.1–57.9% (average 26.9%) and 17.1–27.3% (average 22.3%), respectively. The TN runoff loss under the GM treatment decreased by 3.50–10.61 kg N ha−1 (22.5–42.1%). GM primarily reduced the runoff loss of dissolved inorganic N (DIN), with reductions at different sites ranging from 0.22 to 9.66 kg N ha−1 (8.4–43.4%), indicating GM effectively decreases N runoff by reducing DIN. Model simulations of ponding water depth, runoff, TN concentration in surface water, and TN loss in paddy fields produced the consistency indices and simulation efficiencies of 0.738–0.985, 0.737–0.986, 0.912–0.986, and 0.674–0.972, respectively, indicating that the model can be used to evaluate water consumption and N runoff loss in the GM-paddy system. The simulations showed that GM with a 40% N fertilizer significantly reduced N runoff loss under all rainfall conditions, with the greatest reductions in wet years. Under wet, normal, and dry conditions, the GM treatments significantly reduced average TN loss by 0.37–5.53 kg N ha−1 (12.77–29.17%), 0.21–5.32 kg N ha−1 (9.95–24.51%), and 0.02–3.2 kg N ha−1 (1.78–23.19%), respectively, compared to the winter fallow treatment. These results indicate that the combination of GM and a 40% reduction in N fertilizer can significantly reduce N runoff loss from paddy fields, demonstrating good effectiveness under various rainfall conditions, making it a green production model worth promoting. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water and Nitrogen Management in the Soil–Crop System (3rd Edition))
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22 pages, 7864 KiB  
Article
A Plant Strategy: Irrigation, Nitrogen Fertilization, and Climatic Conditions Regulated the Carbon Allocation and Yield of Oilseed Flax in Semi-Arid Area
by Haidi Wang, Bangqing Zhao, Yuhong Gao, Bin Yan, Bing Wu, Zhengjun Cui, Yifan Wang, Ming Wen and Xingkang Ma
Plants 2024, 13(18), 2553; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13182553 - 11 Sep 2024
Viewed by 873
Abstract
The injudicious use of water and fertilizer to maximize crop yield not only leads to environmental pollution, but also causes enormous economic losses. For this reason, we investigated the effect of nitrogen (N) (N0 (0), N60 (60 kg ha−1), and N120 [...] Read more.
The injudicious use of water and fertilizer to maximize crop yield not only leads to environmental pollution, but also causes enormous economic losses. For this reason, we investigated the effect of nitrogen (N) (N0 (0), N60 (60 kg ha−1), and N120 (120 kg ha−1)) at different irrigation levels (I0 (0), I1200 (budding 600 m3 ha−1 + kernel 600 m3 ha−1), and I1800 (budding 900 m3 ha−1 + kernel 900 m3 ha−1)) on oilseed flax in the Loess Plateau of China in 2019 and 2020. The objective was to establish appropriate irrigation and fertilizer management strategies that enhance the grain yield (GY) of oilseed flax and maximize water and N productivity. The results demonstrated that irrigation and N application and their coupling effects promoted dry matter accumulation (DMA) and non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) synthesis, and increased the GY of oilseed flax. The contents of NSC in various organs of flax were closely related to grain yield and yield components. Higher NSC in stems was conducive to increased sink capacity (effective capsule number per plant (EC) and thousand kernel weight (TKW)), and the coupling of irrigation and N affected GY by promoting NSC synthesis. Higher GY was obtained by the interaction of irrigation and N fertilizer, with the increase rate ranging from 15.84% to 35.40%. Additionally, in the increased yield of oilseed flax, 39.70–78.06%, 14.49–54.11%, and −10.6–24.93% were contributed by the application of irrigation and nitrogen and the interaction of irrigation and nitrogen (I × N), respectively. Irrigation was the main factor for increasing the GY of oilseed flax. In addition, different climatic conditions changed the contribution of irrigation and N and their interaction to yield increase in oilseed flax. Drought and low temperature induced soluble sugar (SS) and starch (ST) synthesis to resist an unfavorable environment, respectively. The structural equation model showed that the key factors to increasing the GY of oilseed flax by irrigation and nitrogen fertilization were the differential increases in DMA, EC, and TKW. The increases in EC and TKW were attributed to the promotion of DMA and NSC synthesis in oilseed flax organs by irrigation, nitrogen fertilization, and their coupling effects. The I1200N60 treatment obtained higher water use efficiency (WUE) and N partial factor productivity (NPFP) due to lower actual evapotranspiration (ETa) and lower N application rate. Therefore, the strategy of 1200 m3 ha−1 irrigation and 60 kg ha−1 N application is recommended for oilseed flax in semi-arid and similar areas to achieve high grain yield and efficient use of resources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water and Nitrogen Management in the Soil–Crop System (3rd Edition))
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