Benefits of controlled-release/stable fertilizers plus biochar for rice grain yield and nitrogen utilization under alternating wet and dry irrigation

• DOI: 10.1016/j.eja.2021.126338
• Publication Date: 2021-06-23T01:30:08Z
• Authors: Xiaochuang Cao; Ling Yuan; Xiaoxia Liu; Lianfeng Zhu; Chunquan Zhu; Yali Kong; Longlong Wu; Cang Tian; Ruohui Lu; Junhua Zhang; Yijun Yu; Qianyu Jin
• Keywords: 2. Zero hunger; 0401 agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences; 15. Life on land; 6. Clean water

Abstract Identifying approaches to producing greater amounts of rice with higher water productivity (WP) and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is a major challenge for economical, environmentally friendly rice production. Despite the advantages of controlled-release N fertilizers, few studies have investigated their effects on rice agronomic performance, grain yield, NUE and WP under different irrigation regimes. In this study, a three-year field experiment was conducted in Zhejiang, South China, with two irrigation regimes (flood irrigation, FI; alternating wet and dry irrigation, AWD) and five N application methods (zero N, N0; the conventional N level, PUN100; 80 % of the conventional N level, PUN80; 80 % of the conventional N level applied as controlled-release N fertilizer and urea, plus biochar, CRFN80-BC; and 80 % of the conventional N level applied as stable compound N fertilizer and urea, plus biochar, SFN80-BC) using the indica hybrid rice cultivar Zhongzheyou 1. Compared with FI, AWD significantly increased rice yield, irrigation WP (WPi) and irrigation plus rainfall WP (WPi+r), and the values of these variables under CRFN80-BC and SFN80-BC were significantly higher than those under PUN80 and PUN100 (P