Abstract
Abstract Water and nitrogen (N) are the most limiting factors to plant productivity globally, but we lack a critical understanding of how water availability impacts N dynamics in agricultural systems. Plant N requirements are particularly uncertain when water is limited because of the interactive effect of water and N on plant growth, N demand, and plant uptake. We investigated impacts of N application and water availability on plant growth and N movement, including above and belowground growth, water productivity, N productivity, N uptake, N recovery, and greenhouse gas emissions within a semi-arid system in northeastern Colorado, USA. Moderately high soil N availability depressed grain yield and shoot growth under both limited and full water availability, despite no indication of physical toxicity, and came with additional risk of deleterious N losses. Under low N availability, plant N concentrations in aboveground tissues showed greater recovery of N than what was applied in the low N treatments under both full and limited water availability. This enhanced recovery underscores the need to better understand both plant soil foraging and processes governing resource availability under these conditions. Finally, limited water availability reduced N uptake across all N treatments and left 30% more soil nitrate (NO 3 − ) deep in the soil profile at the end of the season than under full water availability. Our results show that plant N needs are not linearly related to water use and emphasize the need for an integrated understanding of water and N interactions, plant foraging for these resources, and the dynamics of processes that make N available to plants.
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Claims 6
Claim · model-written summary
Moderately high soil N depressed maize grain yield under limited and full water availability.
- Treatment
- Moderately high soil N availabilitye0
- Outcome
- grain yielde0
- Direction
- depressede0
- Qualifier
- under both limited and full water availabilitye0
Zea maysNot reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Moderately high soil N availability depressed grain yield and shoot growth under both limited and full water availability”
t0“in maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Moderately high soil N depressed maize shoot growth under both water regimes.
- Treatment
- Moderately high soil N availabilitye0
- Outcome
- shoot growthe0
- Direction
- depressede0
- Qualifier
- under both limited and full water availabilitye0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Moderately high soil N availability depressed grain yield and shoot growth under both limited and full water availability”
t0“in maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Moderately high soil N carried additional risk of deleterious N losses.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“came with additional risk of deleterious N losses”
t0“in maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Under low N, aboveground plant tissues recovered more N than was applied in both water regimes.
- Organ / stage
- aboveground tissuese0
- Outcome
- recovery of Ne0
- Direction
- greatere0
- Qualifier
- under both full and limited water availabilitye0
- Comparator
- what was applied in the low N treatmentse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Under low N availability, plant N concentrations in aboveground tissues showed greater recovery of N than what was applied in the low N treatments under both full and limited water availability”
t0“in maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Limited water availability reduced maize N uptake across all N treatments.
- Treatment
- limited water availabilitye0
- Outcome
- N uptakee0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Qualifier
- across all N treatmentse0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“limited water availability reduced N uptake across all N treatments”
t0“in maize”
Claim · model-written summary
Limited water availability left 30% more deep soil nitrate than full water availability.
- Treatment
- limited water availabilitye0
- Outcome
- soil nitrate (NO 3 − ) deep in the soil profilee0
- Direction
- moree0
- Value
- 30%e0
- Qualifier
- at the end of the seasone0
- Comparator
- full water availabilitye0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“limited water availability reduced N uptake across all N treatments and left 30% more soil nitrate (NO 3 − ) deep in the soil profile at the end of the season than under full water availability”
t0“in maize”
The same questions in other papers
soil water · nutrient: content · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
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