TY - JOUR
T1 - Nitrogen management for corn and groundwater quality in upper midwest irrigated sands
AU - Struffert, Anne M.
AU - Rubin, John C.
AU - Fernández, Fabián G.
AU - Lamb, John A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America. 5585 Guilford Rd., Madison, WI 53711 USA. All rights reserved.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 -
Groundwater contamination from NO
3
-N leaching in corn (Zea mays L.) production with coarse-textured soils poses an environmental concern. Our objectives were to evaluate NO
3
-N leaching in continuous corn (CC), corn after soybean (Glycine max L.) (CSb), and soybean after corn (SbC) in irrigated sandy soils in Minnesota related to (i) N rate using best management practices of split-N application, (ii) a split-N application and single preplant applications of enhanced-efficiency fertilizers (EEF), and (iii) residual N treatment in SbC. Urea (0-315 kg N ha
-1
in 45-kg increments) was broadcast as a split application (half at preplant and half at the V4 development stage) and polymer-coated urea (ESN), ESN/urea, and SuperU at preplant at a rate of 180 kg N ha
-1
on an Arvilla sandy loam soil. In May and June, 75% of the total drainage and 73% of the total NO
3
-N leached occurred. At the economic optimum N rate (EONR), season-long NO
3
-N leaching rates were 86 and 106 kg NO
3
-N ha
-1
for CC and CSb, respectively. In CC, reducing the EONR by 20% reduced grain yield by 4% and NO
3
-N leached by 9%, and a 25% reduction in EONR resulted in an additional 2% reduction for both, whereas no significant reductions occurred for CSb. Similar NO
3
-N leaching occurred with EEFs and the split-N application. After 4 yr of no N application, we measured 9 to 20 mg NO
3
-N L
-1
and leaching of 21 to 51 kg NO
3
-N ha
-1
, highlighting the difficulty of meeting drinking water quality standards in corn cropping systems.
AB -
Groundwater contamination from NO
3
-N leaching in corn (Zea mays L.) production with coarse-textured soils poses an environmental concern. Our objectives were to evaluate NO
3
-N leaching in continuous corn (CC), corn after soybean (Glycine max L.) (CSb), and soybean after corn (SbC) in irrigated sandy soils in Minnesota related to (i) N rate using best management practices of split-N application, (ii) a split-N application and single preplant applications of enhanced-efficiency fertilizers (EEF), and (iii) residual N treatment in SbC. Urea (0-315 kg N ha
-1
in 45-kg increments) was broadcast as a split application (half at preplant and half at the V4 development stage) and polymer-coated urea (ESN), ESN/urea, and SuperU at preplant at a rate of 180 kg N ha
-1
on an Arvilla sandy loam soil. In May and June, 75% of the total drainage and 73% of the total NO
3
-N leached occurred. At the economic optimum N rate (EONR), season-long NO
3
-N leaching rates were 86 and 106 kg NO
3
-N ha
-1
for CC and CSb, respectively. In CC, reducing the EONR by 20% reduced grain yield by 4% and NO
3
-N leached by 9%, and a 25% reduction in EONR resulted in an additional 2% reduction for both, whereas no significant reductions occurred for CSb. Similar NO
3
-N leaching occurred with EEFs and the split-N application. After 4 yr of no N application, we measured 9 to 20 mg NO
3
-N L
-1
and leaching of 21 to 51 kg NO
3
-N ha
-1
, highlighting the difficulty of meeting drinking water quality standards in corn cropping systems.
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U2 - 10.2134/jeq2016.03.0105
DO - 10.2134/jeq2016.03.0105
M3 - Article
C2 - 27695740
AN - SCOPUS:84991226981
SN - 0047-2425
VL - 45
SP - 1557
EP - 1564
JO - Journal of Environmental Quality
JF - Journal of Environmental Quality
IS - 5
ER -
