Substitution of Chemical Fertilizer with Organic Fertilizer Affects Soil Total Nitrogen and Its Fractions in Northern China

Md Elias Hossain, Xurong Mei, Wenying Zhang, Wenyi Dong, Zhenxing Yan, Xiu Liu, Saxena Rachit, Subramaniam Gopalakrishnan and Enke Liu
Additional contact information
Md Elias Hossain: Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Xurong Mei: Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Wenying Zhang: Institute of Dryland Farming, Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Hengshui 053000, China
Wenyi Dong: Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Zhenxing Yan: Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Xiu Liu: Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Saxena Rachit: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru 502324, India
Subramaniam Gopalakrishnan: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru 502324, India
Enke Liu: Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 23, 1-15

Abstract: The impact of chemical to organic fertilizer substitution on soil labile organic and stabilized N pools under intensive farming systems is unclear. Therefore, we analyzed the distribution of soil total N (STN), particulate organic N (PON), microbial biomass N (MBN), dissolved organic N (DON), and mineral N (NO 3 − and NH 4 + ) levels down to 100 cm profile under wheat–maize rotation system in northern China. The experiment was established with four 270 kg ha −1 N equivalent fertilizer treatments: Organic manure (OM); Organic manure with nitrogen fertilizer (OM + NF); Nitrogen fertilizer (NF); and Control (CK). Results found that the OM and OM + NF treatments had significantly higher STN, PON, MBN, DON, and NO 3 − contents in 0–20 cm topsoil depths. Conversely, the NF treatment resulted in the highest ( p < 0.01) DON and NO 3 − depositions in 40–100 cm subsoil depths. The NH 4 + contents in selected profile depths were significantly highest ( p < 0.01) under OM treatment. The correlations between STN and its fractions were positively significant at 0–10 and 10–20 cm topsoil depths. Our results suggest that partial substitution of chemical fertilizer with organic manure could be a sustainable option for soil N management of intensive farming systems.

Keywords: organic manure; nitrogen fertilizer; soil total N; labile organic N; mineral N; soil fertility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/23/12848/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/23/12848/ (text/html)

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:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:23:p:12848-:d:696091

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().