Long-Term Effects of Fertilizers with Regional Climate Variability on Yield Trends of Sweet Corn

Abstract

Climate change affects global crop production year after year. Exploring the impact of different fertilization methods on crop yield stability has become an extremely important topic in sustainable agriculture. The objective of this study is to explore the effects of various fertilization regimes with climate variability on yield stability for sweet corn production in southern Taiwan. Three fertilization treatments composed of chemical fertilizer only (CF), integrated fertilizer (half organic/half chemical fertilizer) (IF), and organic fertilizer only (OF) were implemented from 2009 to 2018 based on the well-maintained soils since 1988. While the same amounts of these fertilizers were applied during the period, we found that different fertilization changed the marketable yields of fresh fruit (ear), which slightly increased for organic fertilizer, but substantially decreased for both chemical (p = 0.0001) and integrated (p = 0.0061) fertilizer. Thus, based on these 10 years of observation, yields among fertilization treatments were analyzed with weather and soil parameters to determine the possible factors involved. Both multiple linear regression equation (p < 0.0001, adj. R2 > 0.57) and regression tree analysis illustrated significantly negative correlations between average ear weight and relative humidity under the chemical fertilizer treatment. In this study, we show for the first time that chemical fertilizer had the lowest yield resilience in response to regional relative humidity change compared to organic and integrated fertilizers. Our results also indicate that specific soil microbes have the potential to help sweet corn face environmental vulnerability in subtropical regions.

Influence Mechanisms of Dynamic Changes in Temperature, Precipitation, Sunshine Duration and Active Accumulated Temperature on Soybean Resources: A Case Study of Hulunbuir, China, from 1951 to 2019

“…The coordination of water and heat conditions with other non-climatic factors is the key to increase crop yields [36,37]. For example, the combination of temperature and irrigation is conducive to the improvement in crop yields [38], while fertilizer combined with a certain amount of light, temperature and precipitation can better regulate soil fertility to increase yields [39]. Therefore, the increase in soybean yields in Hulunbuir may be connected to the continuous improvement of agricultural production technology, fertilizer application amount and frequency and acreage of irrigation.…”

Climate Change Impact and Variability on Cereal Productivity among Smallholder Farmers under Future Production Systems in West Africa

“…It could also be due to lower planting density coupled with lower use of fertiliser. A number of studies have attributed higher variability in yield to increased fertiliser use [19,38]. Variability in yields among farms due to climate change were similar to those under the baseline climate.…”

Agronomic Responses of Sweet Corn - Peanut Intercropping to Liquid Organic Fertilizer Grown in Different Dosages of Vermicompost

“…Insignificant effects of liquid organic fertilizer on intercropped sweet corn on shoot-to-root ratios, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and total chlorophyll of intercropped sweet corns (Table 2) might have related to the compounding effects of high N content in applied liquid organic fertilizer and continuous application of vermicompost in this experimental site since 2011. In addition, the continued application of organic fertilizers could increase nutrient availability in the rhizosphere (Hou et al, 2020), which might later distort the treatment effects. Similar to the insignificant impact of liquid organic fertilizer, the little effects of vermicompost on the shoot-to-root ratios and chlorophyll contents (Table 3) might have resulted from the residual effect of organic practices in respected growing areas.…”