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Acta Agron Sin ›› 2011, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (07): 1259-1265.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1006.2011.01259

• TILLAGE & CULTIVATION·PHYSIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Responses of Corn (Zea mays L.) Nitrogen Status Indicators to Nitrogen Rates and Soil Moisture

ZHU Juan-Juan1,LIANG Yin-Li1,2,Tremblay Nicolas3,*   

  1. 1 College of Life Science, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China; 2 Institute of Soil Water and Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling 712100, China; 3 Horticulture Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 430 Bloul. Gouin, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, J3B 3E6, Canada
  • Received:2010-12-20 Revised:2011-03-27 Online:2011-07-12 Published:2011-05-11
  • Contact: Nicolas.Tremblay@agr.gc.ca, Tel: +1-450-515-2102, Fax: +1-450-346-7740
  • Supported by:

    This work was supported by SAGES funding from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-YW-443-3).

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Abstract: Plants usually experience fluctuating water supply during their life cycle due to continuous changes in climatic factors. Soil water content (SWC) is one of the most critical factors affecting nitrogen (N) availability, movement, and uptake by crops. Consequently, SWC levels may confound the assessment of crop N status. The present study compared the sensitivity of tissue N concentration, SPAD readings, Dualex readings, and SPAD/Dualex ratios for assessing corn (Zea mays L.) N status under different water supply conditions. A greenhouse trial was conducted with four N fertilizer application rates (0, 50, 50+75, and 200 kg ha-1) and three watering levels (drought, drought followed by rewatering, and fully-watered). Tissue N concentration, SPAD, Dualex, and SPAD/Dualex values were influenced significantly by N rates and by SWC. Tissue N concentration, SPAD, and SPAD/Dualex increased with N rates, whereas Dualex decreased. In the first phase of reaction to drought, tissue N concentration, SPAD and SPAD/Dualex decreased rapidly but Dualex increased; however, the opposite pattern of response was observed in the long term. Under rewatering, tissue N concentration, Dualex and SPAD/Dualex gradually recovered, whereas SPAD values did not change significantly as they did in the drought treatment. There were highly significant relationships between SPAD (r=0.92), Dualex (r= -0.86), or SPAD/Dualex (r=0.63) and tissue N concentration. However, SPAD and Dualex were better predictors of tissue N concentration under drought conditions (SPAD:r=0.90;Dualex:r= -0.83) than under fully-watered conditions (SPAD:r=0.39; Dualex:r= -0.44) at the end of the trial. Among the indicators, Dualex was better able to discriminate N treatments, with consistent results across SWC levels.

Key words: Indicators, N status, drought, water recovery

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