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The preference of maize plants for nitrate improves fertilizer N recovery efficiency in an acid soil partially because of alleviated Al toxicity

  • Soils, Sec 1 • Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Nutrient Cycling • Research Article
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Abstract

Purpose

NH4+ and NO3− are the two main inorganic N forms available for plant growth, and NO3− is the preferred N source of maize (Zea mays L.) grown in acid soils. However, the mechanisms for this preference and its contribution to fertilizer N recovery efficiency (FNRE) remained unclear.

Materials and methods

In this 30-day pot experiment, acid soil (pH 4.54; base saturation, 27%) with or without maize plants was supplied with 15N-labeled NH4Cl (20.12 atom % excess), NaNO3 (30.15 atom % excess), or urea (20.10 atom % excess) at the rate of 200 mg N kg−1 without or with liming (1.2 g CaCO3 kg−1).

Results and discussion

Without liming, maize biomass and FNRE were higher under NO3− or urea than under NH4+. Lime increased the maize biomass and FNRE by 421–835% under NH4+ and by 30–112% under NO3− or urea. Without lime, the maize shoot Al concentration was much lower under urea or NO3− than under NH4+, because NH4+ decreased soil pH by 0.35 units and increased soil exchangeable Al concentration by 4–11%. Lime increased soil pH by 0.1–0.3 units and decreased soil exchangeable Al concentration by 25–57%. Among various treatments, the biomass of maize plants was negatively correlated with soil exchangeable Al concentration.

Conclusions

The preference of maize plants for NO3− improves the FNRE of maize in acid soil partially due to alleviated Al toxicity as a result of soil pH increase.

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Data availability

All data and materials in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. An Yong Hu from Nantong University for comments on the manuscript, and Ms. Deling Sun and Qiaojun Fan for technical support.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31672229 and 42077101); the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA24020104); and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2019YFC1803704).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nan**g, 210008, China

    Jia Lin Wang, Xue Qiang Zhao, Hao Qing Zhang & Ren Fang Shen

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100049, China

    Jia Lin Wang, Xue Qiang Zhao, Hao Qing Zhang & Ren Fang Shen

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  1. Jia Lin Wang
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  2. Xue Qiang Zhao
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Contributions

XQZ conceived and designed the experiments. JLW performed all of the experiments. HQZ assisted soil preparation and maize harvest. JLW analyzed data and prepared the figures and tables. XQZ and JLW wrote the manuscript draft. RFS and HQZ revised the manuscript. All the authors approved the submitted version.

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Correspondence to Xue Qiang Zhao.

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Wang, J.L., Zhao, X.Q., Zhang, H.Q. et al. The preference of maize plants for nitrate improves fertilizer N recovery efficiency in an acid soil partially because of alleviated Al toxicity. J Soils Sediments 21, 3019–3033 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-021-03007-9

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