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Carbon and nitrogen partitioning of wheat and field pea grown with two nitrogen levels under elevated CO2

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Abstract

Background and Aims

Crop responses to elevated atmospheric CO2 are likely to be different in semi-arid cropping systems of Australia. This experiment aimed to investigate the interactive effects of atmospheric CO2 and nitrogen (N) fertiliser on carbon (C) and N partitioning in the soil-plant system of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and field pea (Pisum sativum L.).

Methods

Plants were grown with 40 or 100 mg N kg−1 under ambient CO2 (390 ppm) or elevated CO2 (eCO2; 550 ppm) using free-air CO2 enrichment (SoilFACE). Repeated 13CO2 pulse labelling was used to quantify C transfer via plant to the soil. Destructive sampling was performed at grain filling and maturity.

Results

eCO2 increased shoot biomass of field pea (36 %) and wheat (55 %) but only increased root biomass of wheat (13.5 %) in the 25–50 cm soil layer. Total N content of both species was greater under eCO2, and for field pea it indicated enhanced biological N2 fixation. However, eCO2 increased the C:N ratio of wheat even at the high N level. Greater 13C in soil of wheat grown under eCO2 indicated a minor increase in soil C via rhizodeposition.

Conclusions

Increased biomass and C:N ratio of wheat could have implications for residue decomposition. eCO2 and low N tended to increase grain yield but the increase was highly variable and not significant. Additional N content of field pea under eCO2 exceeded the N that would be removed in wheat grain, albeit with lower than expected grain yield due to dry conditions.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by an Australian Research Council Linkage Project (LP100200757), and was conducted at the SoilFACE facility of the Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI), Victoria at Horsham. We are grateful to Dr Xiaojuan Wang for help in establishing experiments, Joseph Conheady for help with fieldwork and Dr Jairo Palta and Dr Karen Baumann for providing useful feedback on the 13C pulse-labelling technique.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal, Plant & Soil Sciences, Centre for AgriBioscience, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Vic, 3086, Australia

    Clayton R. Butterly, Roger Armstrong & Caixian Tang

  2. Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport & Resources, Horsham, Vic, 3401, Australia

    Roger Armstrong

  3. Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Science, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic, 3010, Australia

    Deli Chen

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  1. Clayton R. Butterly
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  2. Roger Armstrong
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  3. Deli Chen
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  4. Caixian Tang
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Correspondence to Clayton R. Butterly or Caixian Tang.

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Responsible Editor: Zucong Cai.

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Butterly, C.R., Armstrong, R., Chen, D. et al. Carbon and nitrogen partitioning of wheat and field pea grown with two nitrogen levels under elevated CO2 . Plant Soil 391, 367–382 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2441-5

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