Journal
PLOS ONE
Volume 13, Issue 9, Pages -Publisher
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204570
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Special Fund for the National Key Research and Development Program of China [2016YED201003]
- key projects of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology [2015BAD23B01-4]
- earmarked fund for China Agriculture Research System [CARS-25]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Excessive fertilization is a common agricultural practice that often negatively influence soil and environmental quality in intensive vegetable production systems in China. To reduce negative effects of excessive fertilization, current studies generally focused on fertilizer management but not irrigation. In this study, we investigated the effects of fertilization and irrigation on soil properties, leaching water characteristics, plant growth, cucumber yield, irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) and partial factor productivity of nitrogen (PFPN) in a double cropping system. The treatments included (i) conventional irrigation with conventional N fertilization (IcNc), (ii) optimal irrigation with conventional N fertilization (IoNc), (iii) conventional irrigation with optimal N fertilization (IcNo), and (iv) optimal irrigation with optimal N fertilization (IoNo). In general, fertilization merely influenced concentrations of nitrate (NO3-), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), but did not affect most leaching water characteristics. In contrast, irrigation influenced pH, EC and concentrations of P, K, Ca, Mg, Na and Cu. Cumulative leached amounts of NO3-, P, K, Ca, Mg, Na, Fe, Cu and Zn were significantly decreased by optimal irrigation as compared to conventional irrigation under same fertilization conditions, but not by optimal fertilization as compared to conventional fertilization under same irrigation conditions. The leachate volume was strongly positively correlated with cumulative leached amounts of all tested elements, and these relationships were obviously influenced by irrigation but not fertilization. The IoNo treatment significantly increased both IWUE and PFPN as compared to the IcNc treatment. However, the IcNo treatment only enhanced PFPN, while the IoNc treatment improved IWUE, when compared to the IcNc treatment. Our results suggested that irrigation has more influence than fertilization on leaching water quality and that the optimal irrigation combined with optimal fertilization was efficient in reducing the potential environmental risk caused by excessive fertilization in intensive vegetable production systems.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available