Development of an Online Tool for Tracking Soil Nitrogen to Improve the Environmental Performance of Maize Production

Giovani Preza-Fontes, Junming Wang, Muhammad Umar, Meilan Qi, Kamaljit Banger, Cameron Pittelkow and Emerson Nafziger
Additional contact information
Giovani Preza-Fontes: Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Junming Wang: Illinois State Water Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA
Muhammad Umar: Department of Meteorology, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad Capital Territory 45550, Pakistan
Meilan Qi: School of Science, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Kamaljit Banger: Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Cameron Pittelkow: Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 65616, USA
Emerson Nafziger: Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 10, 1-14

Abstract: Freshwater nitrogen (N) pollution is a significant sustainability concern in agriculture. In the U.S. Midwest, large precipitation events during winter and spring are a major driver of N losses. Uncertainty about the fate of applied N early in the growing season can prompt farmers to make additional N applications, increasing the risk of environmental N losses. New tools are needed to provide real-time estimates of soil inorganic N status for corn ( Zea mays L.) production, especially considering projected increases in precipitation and N losses due to climate change. In this study, we describe the initial stages of developing an online tool for tracking soil N, which included, (i) implementing a network of field trials to monitor changes in soil N concentration during the winter and early growing season, (ii) calibrating and validating a process-based model for soil and crop N cycling, and (iii) developing a user-friendly and publicly available online decision support tool that could potentially assist N fertilizer management. The online tool can estimate real-time soil N availability by simulating corn growth, crop N uptake, soil organic matter mineralization, and N losses from assimilated soil data (from USDA gSSURGO soil database), hourly weather data (from National Weather Service Real-Time Mesoscale Analysis), and user-entered crop management information that is readily available for farmers. The assimilated data have a resolution of 2.5 km. Given limitations in prediction accuracy, however, we acknowledge that further work is needed to improve model performance, which is also critical for enabling adoption by potential users, such as agricultural producers, fertilizer industry, and researchers. We discuss the strengths and limitations of attempting to provide rapid and cost-effective estimates of soil N availability to support in-season N management decisions, specifically related to the need for supplemental N application. If barriers to adoption are overcome to facilitate broader use by farmers, such tools could balance the need for ensuring sufficient soil N supply while decreasing the risk of N losses, and helping increase N use efficiency, reduce pollution, and increase profits.

Keywords: smart farming; DSSAT; decision support tool; soil mineral nitrogen; nitrogen management; nitrogen losses; corn; Illinois; U.S. Midwest (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5649/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5649/ (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:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:10:p:5649-:d:557296

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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