Patterns of crop-specific fertilizer-nitrogen losses and opportunities for sustainable mitigation: A quantitative overview of ¹⁵N-tracing studies

Highlights

● Pattern and mitigation potential of crop-specific fertilizer-N losses were assessed.

● China showed high fertilizer-N losses due to high N application rates and low SOC.

● MAP, SOC, and soil pH are key parameters affecting fertilizer-N losses.

● At a given application rate, soils with higher SOC have lower fertilizer-N losses.

● Optimal N rate combined with SOC improvement could cut 34.8%−59.6% of N losses.

Abstract

Understanding crop-specific fertilizer-nitrogen (N) loss patterns, driving factors, and mitigation potentials is vital for developing efficient mitigation strategies. However, analyses based on the gross magnitude of fertilizer-N losses within a growing season remain fragmented and inconclusive at a global scale. To address this gap, we conducted a global meta-analysis using 940 observations from 79 published ¹⁵N-tracing studies to assess the effects of natural factors, soil parameters, and N application rates on gross fertilizer-N losses in cereal-cropped soils. We found that China had the highest conventional fertilizer-N application and loss rates (230−255 and 75.9−114 kg N ha⁻¹ season⁻¹, respectively) and the lowest soil organic carbon (SOC) contents (10.6 g kg⁻¹) among the countries examined. Mean annual precipitation, SOC content, and soil pH were key parameters affecting fertilizer-N losses in wheat-, maize-, and rice-cropped soils, respectively. Fertilizer-N application rates were positively correlated with N loss amounts, while higher SOC levels led to lower losses. Adopting optimized N application rates combined with improving SOC levels could potentially mitigate 34.8%−59.6% of N losses without compromising crop yields compared with conventional practices. This study underscores the critical role of SOC in reducing N losses and suggests that future research should focus on innovative strategies and efficient organic amendments for enhanced SOC sequestration.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

fertilizer-nitrogen loss / crop-specific / ¹⁵N tracing / soil organic carbon / meta-analysis

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interest.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments that significantly improved the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41907069, 42007088, and 42377338), the Basic Research Program of Jiangsu Province (BK20230076), the Jiangsu Agriculture Science and Technology Innovation Fund (CX(23)1019), the Key Research and Development Project of Jiangsu Province (BE2021378), and the China Agriculture Research System (CARS-10-Sweetpotato).

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