Plough Pan Impacts Maize Grain Yield, Carbon Assimilation, and Nitrogen Uptake in the Corn Belt of Northeast China

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the responses of carbon assimilation, grain yield, leaf stay-green rate, nitrogen uptake and distribution to soil compaction in the hard plow pan caused by repeated use of tractor-driven cultivator in Northeast China. The typical hybrid maize variety “Zhengdan 958” was exposed to two treatments of simulated plow pan (SP) and simulated subsoiling (SS, control) in pot experiments from 2012 to 2014. Compared with SS, SP significantly reduced net photosynthetic rate (Pn) during growth stage, leading to a decrease in dry matter accumulation (DMA) and grain yield (GY) in three consecutive experimental years. Leaf stay-green degrees (LSD), which showed a fast descending trend from 20 days after silking (DAS), significantly decreased in the later filling stage under SP treatment. The translocation efficiency of the stored N (TEN) in stalk and leaf to the grain during pre-silking was enhanced, whereas leaf and grain N concentration (LNC/GNC), together with N accumulation amounts at maturity were significantly reduced under SP treatment. Also, plough pan reduced the N distribution to the organs of stalk, leaf and grain. In conclusion, subsoiling is a possible way to delay leaf senescence and achieve higher DMA and GY, and increased grain N in the corn belt of Northeast China.

Nitrogen Uptake and Response to Radiation Distribution in the Canopy of High‐Yield Maize

“…2A, 3A, and 3B). Despite high grain yield, N uptake levels at silking and post-silking in our study were less than the levels reported in previous studies Liu et al, 2014b;Mu et al, 2015;Zheng et al, 2016;Cao et al, 2017;Zhou et al, 2017). Furthermore, we found that the slope of the relationship between N uptake post-silking and maize grain yield (y = 13.254e 0.151x ) was greater than that of N uptake at silking and grain yield (y = 10.583x + 19.584), and thus the N uptake post-silking may be more important (Mueller and Vyn, 2016).…”

“…In some studies, N uptake at maturity was >400 kg N ha −1 , and N uptake at silking and post-silking was >200 kg N ha −1 Guo et al, 2015), which are greater than that in our study. Despite high grain yield, N uptake levels at silking and post-silking in our study were less than the levels reported in previous studies Liu et al, 2014b;Mu et al, 2015;Zheng et al, 2016;Cao et al, 2017;Zhou et al, 2017). In previous reports, we found that N uptake at maturity, silking, and post-silking increased with improvement in grain yield ( Fig.…”

Maize yield, biomass and grain quality traits responses to delayed sowing date and genotypes in rain-fed condition

“…This result is in agreement with earlier reports of Ceyhan et al (2008) in bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and Fabijanac et al (2006), who demonstrated sowing date did not affect grain yield and protein content in any of the tested hybrids. Similar results of higher protein concentration with late of biomass stored in the stem and leaf during vegetative growth (Ning et al, 2013;Cao et al, 2017). Plant with delayed sowing shortened the growth periods of vegetative and reproductive growth, thus leading to a reduction of dry matter accumulation during growth stage.…”

“…Nitrogen (N) content in seed grains is an important nutrition factor, which is highly associated with human health and animal feeding (Cao et al, 2017). It has been well-known that grain N accumulation is not only based on N uptake during the post-silking stage, but also closely related to the remobilization of N stored in leaf and stem during vegetative growth stage (Liu et al, 2016).…”

“…Therefore, sowing time is an important factor which would affect the grain yield and quality for field crops. As well known, maize grain yield is significantly and positively correlated with dry matter accumulation during post-anthesis stage (Cao et al, 2017;Guo et al, 2017). In turn, delayed planting date beyond an optimum period can result in substantial biomass and yield loss in most cases, due to shorter duration of vegetative and grain filling period (Nielsen et al, 2002).…”