Nitrogen fertility and abiotic stresses management in cotton crop: a review

Abstract

This review outlines nitrogen (N) responses in crop production and potential management decisions to ameliorate abiotic stresses for better crop production. N is a primary constituent of the nucleotides and proteins that are essential for life. Production and application of N fertilizers consume huge amounts of energy, and excess is detrimental to the environment. Therefore, increasing plant N use efficiency (NUE) is important for the development of sustainable agriculture. NUE has a key role in crop yield and can be enhanced by controlling loss of fertilizers by application of humic acid and natural polymers (hydrogels), having high water-holding capacity which can improve plant performance under field conditions. Abiotic stresses such as waterlogging, drought, heat, and salinity are the major limitations for successful crop production. Therefore, integrated management approaches such as addition of aminoethoxyvinylglycine (AVG), the film antitranspirant (di-1-p-menthene and pinolene) nutrients, hydrogels, and phytohormones may provide novel approaches to improve plant tolerance against abiotic stress-induced damage. Moreover, for plant breeders and molecular biologists, it is a challenge to develop cotton cultivars that can tolerate plant abiotic stresses while having high potential NUE for the future.

Nitrogen Enhances Salt Tolerance by Modulating the Antioxidant Defense System and Osmoregulation Substance Content in Gossypium hirsutum

“…Moreover, in support of the outcomes of the present study, several other scholars reported that co-application of nitrogen significantly boosted the level of antioxidant enzymes in soybean [56], Catharanthus roseus [57], and blueberry [58]. Nitrogen serves as a first line of defense against internal and environmental oxidative stressors [17,21,59,60]. Moreover, the positive effect of nitrogen may be related to nitrogen being an effective component of antioxidant enzymes and antioxidants [17,27].…”

Rational Water and Nitrogen Management Improves Root Growth, Increases Yield and Maintains Water Use Efficiency of Cotton under Mulch Drip Irrigation

“…Deficit irrigation results in deeper root penetration of the cotton plant (Sampathkumar et al, 2013), which can conserve 22% of the soil water (Mustafa et al, 2011). Nitrogen application to a cotton crop especially in a water deficit is essential to recover growth and development from drought stress (Khan et al, 2017). …”

Salinity and crop yield

“…It is important to note that salinity can cause crop yield losses even though the effects of salinity may not be obvious. Both salt tolerance and sensitivity of a specific crop depend on its ability to extract water and nutrients from saline soils and to avoid excessive tissue accumulation of salt ions (Ahmad et al 2017;Khan et al 2017;Kaleem et al 2018) The majority of vegetable crops is highly salt sensitive. In the model of Maas & Hoffman (1977), relative crop yield is not affected until a salinity threshold (ECt) is exceeded, according to the following equation: Y = 100 -S (EC e -EC t ), where Y is the relative crop yield with 100 being the maximum yield, EC e is the salinity of saturated soil extract, and EC t (dS m À1 ) is the threshold defined as the value of the electrical conductivity (EC) that is expected to cause the initial significant reduction in the maximum expected yield, and S is the slope that represents the percentage of yield expected to be reduced for each unit of added salinity above the EC t .…”