Developing functional relationships of corn growth and developmental responses to nitrogen nutrition for modeling

Abstract

Nitrogen (N), one of the essential mineral elements, is involved in many biochemical processes and ultimately closely relates to agronomic yield. Our ability to monitor N concentrations in plants through direct tissue sampling or remote sensing has rapidly evolved as technology has advanced. However, functional relationships between morphological and physiological processes and tissue N have yet to be widely published and are needed to advance precision and predictive agricultural technologies further. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to determine the relationships between tissue N concentration and corn (Zea mays L.) morphological and physiologic characteristics. Plants were grown in pots under optimal conditions in sunlit controlled-environment chambers but with varying N supplies. Plant growth, developmental, and physiologic properties were monitored weekly. Shoot N content differed among treatments and declined over time for all treatment levels. Photosynthesis declined as N content decreased, but these decreases were largely non-stomatal limiting. Reductions in N content were due to declining chlorophyll and N balance index values and increasing flavonoids and anthocyanins. Stem elongation and leaf expansion were highly sensitive to declining N content. Below the soil surface, root growth and development rates fell and held a quadratic relationship with N content. Roots were less sensitive at low N stress levels than plant growth above the soil surface. The functional relationships produced from this study could help update crop simulation models and apply them to emerging precision agriculture technologies.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Corn / modeling / nitrogen / photosynthesis / root growth / shoot growth

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Author contributions

Charles Hunt Walne Conceptualization, data collection; methodology; formal analysis; writing-original draft, review and editing, Jagman Dhillon: Review & editing, Krishna N. Reddy: Funding; review and editing, Kambham Raja Reddy: Conceplization; data curation; formal analysis; methodology; funding. Review & editing,

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Mr. David Brand for technical assistance. This work was partially supported by the Mississippi Corn Promotion Board, the NIFA (2019-34263-30552 and MIS 430030), and USDA-ARS NACA 58-6066-2-030.

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