Abstract
Adequate fertilization strategies are paramount to fulfill increasing demands for food, feed and fiber while reducing environmental impacts. However, their optimization under Mediterranean no-till systems has received little attention. The objective of this work was to assess winter cereal yield and water and N use efficiencies in a rainfed semiarid Mediterranean climate under (i) a range of pre-plant fertilizers [control without N fertilizer (0 N), and the following at 75 kg N ha−1: mineral N (MIN), swine slurry (SS), poultry manure (PM), and compost (COM)], (ii) fertilizer incorporation: no-tillage without incorporating (NT) or incorporation with a vibrocultivator (INC) and (iii) application of urea-ammonium nitrate solution (UAN) as top-dress as a control without UAN (UAN-) or 50 kg N ha−1 (UAN+). The experiment covered six cropping seasons (2012–2019). Pre-plant applications had similar responses in crop yield, biomass, N uptake, grain N, water-use efficiency for biomass (WUEb), and water-use efficiency for yield (WUEy) but were greater than 0 N. The lack of differences between pre-plant fertilizers would be explained by the high amount of residual N and the mineralized N during the crop cycle. Top-dress UAN increased WUEy and crop yield in all the cropping seasons by an average of 587 kg grain ha−1, which represented 18 % of the total annual production. Averaged across variables and the growing seasons, INC reduced soil water content and WUEb by 10 % (from 24.3 to 21.8 kg ha−1 mm−1). Also, INC reduced grain yield by 9% (from 3799 to 3450 kg ha−1) by reducing the number of spikes m-2 produced, pointing out that INC resulted in water deficit during the early reproductive period of the crop. While INC is often consider a best management practice to reduce NH3 volatilization losses from broadcast fertilizer applications, the results demonstrate that in rainfed Mediterranean agroecosystems water is more limiting than the N that could be potentially lost by volatilization.
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Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
Pre-plant fertilizers gave similar responses across crop yield, biomass, nitrogen uptake, grain nitrogen and water-use efficiency.
- Taxon
- wheat and barley
.jpg?width=60)
Hordeum vulgare
Triticum aestivumt0 - Treatment
- Pre-plant applicationse0
- Outcome
- crop yield, biomass, N uptakee0
- Direction
- similare0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
.jpg?width=500)
Verbatim
e0“Pre-plant applications had similar responses in crop yield, biomass, N uptake, grain N, water-use efficiency for biomass (WUEb), and water-use efficiency for yield (WUEy)”
t0“wheat and barley performance and water and nitrogen use efficiency”
Claim · model-written summary
Pre-plant fertilizers outperformed no nitrogen for the listed crop responses.
- Taxon
- wheat and barleyHordeum vulgareTriticum aestivumt0
- Treatment
- Pre-plant applicationse0
- Outcome
- crop yield, biomass, N uptakee0
- Direction
- greatere0
- Comparator
- 0 Ne0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Pre-plant applications had similar responses in crop yield, biomass, N uptake, grain N, water-use efficiency for biomass (WUEb), and water-use efficiency for yield (WUEy) but were greater than 0 N”
t0“wheat and barley performance and water and nitrogen use efficiency”
Claim · model-written summary
Top-dress UAN increased yield by an average of 587 kg grain ha−1 across seasons.
- Taxon
- wheat and barleyHordeum vulgareTriticum aestivumt0
- Treatment
- Top-dress UANe0
- Outcome
- crop yielde0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Value
- 587 kg grain ha−1e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Top-dress UAN increased WUEy and crop yield in all the cropping seasons by an average of 587 kg grain ha−1, which represented 18 % of the total annual production”
t0“wheat and barley performance and water and nitrogen use efficiency”
Claim · model-written summary
Top-dress UAN increased water-use efficiency for yield across seasons.
- Taxon
- wheat and barleyHordeum vulgareTriticum aestivumt0
- Treatment
- Top-dress UANe0
- Outcome
- WUEye0
- Direction
- increasede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Top-dress UAN increased WUEy and crop yield in all the cropping seasons”
t0“wheat and barley performance and water and nitrogen use efficiency”
Claim · model-written summary
Incorporation reduced soil water content.
- Taxon
- wheat and barleyHordeum vulgareTriticum aestivumt0
- Treatment
- INCe0
- Outcome
- soil water contente0
- Direction
- reducede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“INC reduced soil water content and WUEb by 10 % (from 24.3 to 21.8 kg ha−1 mm−1)”
t0“wheat and barley performance and water and nitrogen use efficiency”
Claim · model-written summary
Incorporation reduced biomass water-use efficiency by 10%.
- Taxon
- wheat and barleyHordeum vulgareTriticum aestivumt0
- Treatment
- INCe0
- Outcome
- WUEbe0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Value
- 10 %e0
- Qualifier
- from 24.3 to 21.8 kg ha−1 mm−1e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“INC reduced soil water content and WUEb by 10 % (from 24.3 to 21.8 kg ha−1 mm−1)”
t0“wheat and barley performance and water and nitrogen use efficiency”
Claim · model-written summary
Incorporation reduced grain yield by 9%.
- Taxon
- wheat and barleyHordeum vulgareTriticum aestivumt0
- Treatment
- INCe0
- Outcome
- grain yielde0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Value
- 9%e0
- Qualifier
- from 3799 to 3450 kg ha−1e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“INC reduced grain yield by 9% (from 3799 to 3450 kg ha−1)”
t0“wheat and barley performance and water and nitrogen use efficiency”
Claim · model-written summary
Incorporation reduced the number of spikes per area.
- Taxon
- wheat and barleyHordeum vulgareTriticum aestivumt0
- Outcome
- number of spikes m-2e0
- Direction
- reducinge0
Not reportedTreatmentComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“by reducing the number of spikes m-2 produced”
t0“wheat and barley performance and water and nitrogen use efficiency”
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