CC BY 4.0 · Sustainability & Circularity NOW 2024; 01: a24196203
DOI: 10.1055/a-2419-6203
Original Article

Optimizing Irrigation and Fertilization Contributes to Mitigating Nutrients Leaching While Improving Crop Yield: Insights From a Field Experiment and Density Functional Theory Calculation

Debo He
1   Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
3   Key Laboratory of Mountain Surface Process and Ecological Regulation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
4   University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
,
Yunfeng Wang
1   Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
3   Key Laboratory of Mountain Surface Process and Ecological Regulation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
4   University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
,
Yinlin Zang
2   College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100049, China
,
Tao Wang
1   Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
3   Key Laboratory of Mountain Surface Process and Ecological Regulation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
,
Bo Zhu
1   Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
3   Key Laboratory of Mountain Surface Process and Ecological Regulation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
› Institutsangaben
Funding Information The Key Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. U20A20107] and the National Key Research Plan of China [Grant No. 2022YFD1901401] supported this work.


Abstract

Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) losses from farmland pose a significant threat to non-point source pollution in plateau lakes. Reducing nutrient loss from cropland is essential for the sustainable agricultural and ecological development of plateau lakes. The study aimed to investigate the effects of optimizing irrigation and fertilization on N and P losses based on field experiments and density functional theory calculation. The findings showed that ditch irrigation contributes to N and P leaching through their interactions with water and colloids, while drip irrigation reduces the transfer capacity for N and P by decreasing the intensity and volume of leachates. Additionally, changing from conventional fertilization to multiple fertilization based on the nutrient needs of corn significantly improved fertilizer efficiency, resulting in reductions in N and P losses of 25.2–72.4% and 24.2–67.6%, respectively. Additionally, the optimization of irrigation and fertilization led to an 11.3% improvement in crop yield. These results contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms through which agricultural practices affect nutrient losses and have significant implications for optimizing farmland management in the Erhai Lake basin. Importantly, this research is of great significance in mitigating the threat of agricultural non-point source pollution in ecologically fragile plateau lakes.

Data Availability

The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.


Supplementary Material



Publikationsverlauf

Eingereicht: 28. Juni 2024

Angenommen nach Revision: 04. September 2024

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
20. Dezember 2024

© 2024. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Oswald-Hesse-Straße 50, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

Bibliographical Record
Debo He, Yunfeng Wang, Yinlin Zang, Tao Wang, Bo Zhu. Optimizing Irrigation and Fertilization Contributes to Mitigating Nutrients Leaching While Improving Crop Yield: Insights From a Field Experiment and Density Functional Theory Calculation. Sustainability & Circularity NOW 2024; 01: a24196203.
DOI: 10.1055/a-2419-6203