Nitrogen surface runoff losses from a Chinese cabbage field under different nitrogen treatments in the Taihu Lake Basin, China

Linan Shan, Yunfeng He, Jie Chen, Qian Huang, Xu Lian, Hongcai Wang and Yili Liu

Agricultural Water Management, 2015, vol. 159, issue C, 255-263

Abstract: The excessive use of nitrogen (N) fertilizer for crop production can cause substantial N losses through surface runoff, generating serious nonpoint pollution. A thorough understanding of N runoff losses is necessary for optimal N management in vegetable production systems. A 3-year field experiment was conducted at a Chinese cabbage field in the Taihu Lake Basin of China to evaluate the characteristics of N runoff losses and the effect of different N fertilizer treatments on N runoff losses during the autumn and winter, 2010–2012. The results demonstrated that surface runoff was significantly and positively related to rainfall. The highest risk of N runoff loss occurred one week after fertilization, and top dressing increased this risk. NO3−-N was the main runoff component, accounting for 49.32–71.82% of the total N losses. The concentration of NO3−-N was significantly and positively related to the concentration of total N in the runoff. Significant differences in N runoff losses were observed between N fertilizer treatments. N runoff losses from conventional fertilizer were 10.43–22.68kgha−1, significantly higher than from other treatments, and the total N net runoff loss rates for conventional fertilizer treatment were 3.48–7.56%. The application of organic fertilizer reduced N runoff loss by 15.70–18.14% compared to conventional fertilizer application. Organic–inorganic compound fertilizer reduced N runoff loss by 27.37–36.27% compared with conventional fertilizer. Slow-release fertilizers had very significant positive effects in controlling N runoff loss, with a 58.29–61.01% reduction for sulfur-coated urea, a 49.33–56.05% reduction for biological carbon power urea, and a 59.79–63.59% reduction for bulk-blend controlled-release fertilizer relative to conventional fertilizer. This study provides vital baseline information for fertilizer choice and management practices, which can be used to reduce N runoff losses and encourage the development of new fertilizer strategies for vegetable planting.

Keywords: Nitrogen fertilizer; Nitrogen runoff losses; Water quality; Slow-release fertilizer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377415300263
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:159:y:2015:i:c:p:255-263

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2015.06.008

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().