Influences of nitrogen fertilizer application rates on radish yield, nutrition quality, and nitrogen recovery efficiency

Abstract

Radishes (Raphanus sativus L.) were grown in plastic pots in a screenhouse to investigate the influences of nitrogen fertilizer application rates (NFAR) on yield, nitrate content, nitrate reductase activity (NR), nutrition quality, and nitrogen recovery efficiency (NRE) at commercial mature stage. Five N-rate treatments, 0.644, 0.819, 0.995, 1.170, and 1.346 g•pot^-1, were set up in the screenhouse pot experiments, and nitrogen fertilizer (unlabeled N and ¹⁵N-labeled fertilizer) was applied as basal dressing and topdressing, respectively. The results indicated that the fresh and dry weight yields of radish increased with the increase of NFAR at the range of 0.099 to 0.180 g N•kg^-1 soil, decreased at 0.207 g N•kg^-1 soil, and accordingly there was a significant quadratic relationship between the fresh and dry weight yields of radish and the NFAR. At the high addition of urea-N fertilizer, the nitrate content accumulated in the fleshy roots and leaves due to the decline in NR activity. From 0.644 to 0.819 g N•pot^-1 NR increased most rapidly, the highest NR activity occurred at 0.819 g N•pot^-1, and the lowest NR activity happened at 1.346 g N•pot^-1. Soluble sugar and ascorbic acid initially increased to the highest value and then decreased, and, contrarily, crude fiber rapidly decreased with the increase of NFAR. Total N uptake (TNU), N derived from fertilizer (N_dff), and N derived from soil (N_dfs) in radish increased, except that N_dfs relatively and slightly decreased at the rate of 0.207 g N•kg^-1soil. The ratio of N_dff to TNU increased, but the ratio of N_dfs to TNU as well as NRE of N fertilizer decreased with the increase of NFAR. Therefore, the appropriate NFAR should be preferably recommended for improving the yields and nutrition qualities of radish and NRE of N fertilizer.

Keywords

¹⁵N-labeled nitrogen fertilizer / radish / yields / nutrition quality / nitrogen recovery efficiency

References

[1] Ai S Y, Yao J, Huang W, Luo X H, Ke Y S, Ling D Q (2002). Study on the nitrate reduction characteristic of vegetables. Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer Science, 8: 40-43 (in Chinese)

[2] Aslam M, Travis R L, Rains D W (2001). Enhancement of nitrate reductase activity and metabolic nitrate concentration by methionine sulfoximine in barley roots. Plant Science, 161: 133-142

[3] Basra A S, Dhawan A K, Goyal S S (2002). DCMU inhibits in vivo nitrate reduction in illuminated barley (C₃) leaves but not in maize (C₄): a new mechanism for the role of light. Planta, 215: 855-861

[4] Cárdenas-Navarro R, Adamowicz S, Robin P (1999). Nitrate accumulation in plants: a role for water. Journal of Experimental Botany, 50: 613-624

[5] Chen B M, Wang Z H, Li S X, Wang G X, Song H X, Wang X N (2004). Effects of nitrate supply on plant, nitrate accumulation, metabolic nitrate concentration and nitrate reductase activity in three leafy vegetables. Plant Science, 167: 635-643

[6] Crawford N M (1995). Nitrate: nutrient and signal for plant growth. Plant Cell, 12: 2383-2349

[7] Durner J, Klessig D F (1999). Nitric oxide as a signal in plants. Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 2: 369-374

[8] Elia A, Santamaria P, Serio F (1999). Nitrogen nutrition, yield and quality of spinach. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 76(3): 341-346

[9] Foyer C H, Valadier M H, Migge A, Becker T W (1998). Drought-induced effects on nitrate reductase activity and mRNA and on the coordination of nitrogen and carbon metabolism in maize leaves. Plant Physiology, 117: 283-292

[10] Gastal F, Lemaire G (2002). N uptake and distribution in crops: an agronomical and ecophysiological perspective. Journal of Experimental Botany, 53: 789-799

[11] Hu C X, Deng B E, Liu T C (1992). Effects of nitrogen fertilizer on nitrate accumulation by the Chinese cabbage (Brassica chinenses) and tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum). Journal of Huazhong Agricultural University, 11: 239-243 (in Chinese)

[12] Ikemoto Y, Teraguchi M, Kogayashi Y (2002). Plasma level of nitrate in congenital heart disease: comparison with healthy children. Pediatric Cardiology, 23: 132-136

[13] Ishiwata H, Yamada T, Yoshiike N, Nishijima M, Kawamoto A, Uyama Y ( 2002). Daily intake of food additives in Japan in five age groups estimated by the market basket method. European Food Research and Technology, 215: 367-374

[14] Ivashkina N V, Sokolov O A (1997). Regulation of nitrate distribution in maize seedling by nitrate, nitrite, ammonium and glutamate. Plant Science, 123: 29-37

[15] Ji X H, Zheng S X, Lu Y H, Liao Y L (2006). Dynamics of floodwater nitrogen and its runoff loss, urea and controlled release nitrogen fertilizer application regulation in rice. Scientia Agricultura Sinica, 39: 2521-2530 (in Chinese)

[16] Joseph H S, Michael J P (1979).In vitro stability of nitrate reductase from wheat leaves. Plant Physiology, 63: 346-353

[17] Lam H M, Coschigano K T, Oliveira I C, Melo-Oliveira R, Coruzzi G M (1996). The molecular-genetics of nitrogen assimilation into amino acids in higher plants. Annual Review of Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology, 47: 569-593

[18] Lowell C A, Tomlinson P T, Koch K E (1989). Sucrose metabolizing enzymes in transport tissue and adjacent sink structures in developing citrus fruit. Plant Physiology, 90: 1394-1402

[19] Lu Y K (2000). Analysis Methods of Soil Agricultural Chemistry. Beijing: China Agricultural Scientech Press (in Chinese)

[20] Matt P, Geiger M, Walch-Liu P, Engels C, Krapp A, Stitt M (2001). The immediate cause of the diurnal changes of nitrogen metabolism in leaves of nitrate-replete tobacco: a major imbalance between the rate of nitrate reduction and the rates of nitrate uptake and ammonium metabolism during the first part of the light period. Plant Cell and Environment, 24: 177-190

[21] Noguchi K, Terashima I (2006). Responses of spinach leaf mitochondria to low N availability. Plant Cell and Environment, 29: 710-719

[22] Samuelson M E, Campbell W H, Larasson C M (1995). The influence of cytokinins in nitrate regulation of nitrate reductase activity and expression in barley. Physiologia Plantarum, 93: 533-539

[23] Sánchez E, Rivero R M, Ruiz J M, Romero L (2004). Changes in biomass, enzymatic activity and protein concentration in roots and leaves of green bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Strike) under high NH₄NO₃ application rates. Scientia Horticulturae, 99: 237-248

[24] Scheible W R, Lauerer M, Schulze E D, Caboche M, Stitt M (1997). Accumulation of nitrate in the shoot acts as signal to regulate shoot-root allocation in tobacco. Plant Journal, 11: 671-691

[25] Shou S Y, Lu G, Huang X Z (2007). Seasonal variation in nutritional components of green asparagus using the mother fern cultivation. Scientia Horticulturae, 112: 251-257

[26] Stitt M, Krapp A (1999). The molecular physiological basis for the interaction between elevated carbon dioxide and nutrients. Plant Cell and Environment, 22: 583-622

[27] Wang Z H, Li S X (1996). Relationships between nitrate contents and water, total N as well as total P in different organs of vegetable plants. Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer Science, 2: 144-152 (in Chinese)

[28] Wang Z H, Zong Z Q, Li S X, Chen B M (2002). Nitrate accumulation in vegetables and its residual in vegetable fields. Environment Science, 23: 79-83 (in Chinese)

[29] Zheng G S, Peng G Y, Zhang Q G (1994). Studies on N-utilization of leaf-vegetables with ¹⁵N tracer technique. Acta Agriculturae Universitatis Pekinensis, 20: 257-261 (in Chinese)

[30] Zheng G S, Peng G Y, Zhang Q G (1995).The studies on the nitrate accumulation in celery with 15N tracer techniques. Acta Agriculturae Nucleatea Sinica, 9: 42-46 (in Chinese)

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the International Plant Nutrition Institute, China (IPNI China Program: Hunan-11) and the Hunan Provincial Key Subject, China (No. 04NK2006). We thank the workers at the farm of Hunan Agricultural University for assistance with the experiments. We also thank our colleagues for providing basic soil data.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg