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Crop Responses to Nitrogen

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Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology

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Definition

A prerequisite for the analysis of crop responses to nitrogen (N) is the determination of the plant nitrogen content and repartition. How much N is incorporated within plants and crops? Within which plant tissue? For which physiological function? Thus, according to the answers to these questions, it is possible to determine a critical plant nitrogen status as the minimum plant N concentration that allows the maximum plant (or crop) growth rate. It has been demonstrated that this critical plant N concentration decreases as plant grows as the result of an ontogenetic plant architecture development leading to a dilution of Ncompounds within increasing proportion of free-N compounds as plant gets bigger. This N dilution process can be formulated through a negative power relationship between plant N concentration and crop mass. This critical N dilution curve allows the discrimination of situations of N deficiency (below the curve) and situations of N luxury consumption (above...

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Abbreviations

Critical plant N concentration:

Critical plant N concentration is defined as the minimum plant nitrogen concentration of a crop corresponding to its maximum crop mass.

Critical crop N uptake:

Critical crop N uptake is defined as the minimum crop nitrogen uptake for achieving maximum crop mass.

Harvest index (HI):

Harvest index (HI) is the ratio between harvested biomass Y (grains, tubers) and aboveground crop mass W at crop maturity.

Intercepted photosynthetic active radiation (IPAR):

Intercepted Photosynthetic Active Radiation (IPAR) is the proportion of the incident PAR which is intercepted by the crop at a given time. This proportion is related to the size of the canopy, the Leaf Area Index, and depends also on canopy structure: leaf angle and geometry.

Leaf area index (LAI):

Leaf area index (LAI) is the total canopy leaf area of a crop per unit of soil area. LAI allows the estimation of the proportion of the incident light which is intercepted by the canopy, and then which can be used for photosynthesis of the whole crop.

Nitrogen absorption efficiency (NAE):

Nitrogen absorption efficiency (NAE) is the increase in crop nitrogen uptake per unit of supplemental N supply rate.

Nitrogen conversion efficiency (NCE):

Nitrogen conversion efficiency (NCE) is the increase in crop dry mass (dW) or in crop yield (dY) per unit of supplemental crop N uptake corresponding to an increase in nitrogen supply rate.

Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE):

Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is the increase in crop dry mass (dW) or in crop yield (dY) per unit of supplemental N supply rate. So NUE = NAE × NCE.

N dilution:

N dilution is the process corresponding to more rapid accumulation of nitrogen-free compounds than nitrogen compounds within plant as plant grows, leading to decline in plant nitrogen concentration with plant mass accumulation.

Nitrogen nutrition index (NNI):

Nitrogen nutrition index (NNI) is an index which allows the estimation of the crop nitrogen status. This index is calculated at any moment as the ratio between the actual plant nitrogen concentration of the crop and the critical plant N concentration (see this definition) corresponding to the actual crop mass.

Photosynthetic active radiation (PAR):

Photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) is the part of solar radiation spectrum corresponding to wavelengths that are active for photosynthesis.

Radiation use efficiency (RUE):

Radiation use efficiency (RUE) is the ratio between the quantity of biomass accumulated within a crop and the quantity of photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) intercepted by this crop during the same period of time.

RuBPc-o:

Ribulose bisphophate carboxylase/oxygenase, the enzyme located within chloroplasts which allows the carboxylation of CO2.

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Books and Reviews

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    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Grindlay DJC (1997) Towards an explanation of crop nitrogen demand based on leaf nitrogen per unit leaf area. J Sci Food Agric 63:116–123

    Google Scholar 

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    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

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  • Lemaire G, Gastal F (1997) N uptake and distribution in plant canopies. In: Lemaire G (ed) Diagnosis on the nitrogen status in crops. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 3–43

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lemaire G, Gastal F (2009) Quantifying crop responses to nitrogen deficiency and avenues to improve nitrogen use efficiency

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemaire G, Jeuffroy MH, Gastal F (2008) Diagnostis tool for plant and crop N status in vegetative stage. Theory and practices for crop N management. Eur J Agron 28:614–624

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lemaire G, Recous S, Mary B (2004) Managing residues and nitrogen in intensive cropping systems. New understandings for efficient recovery by crops. In: Proceedings of the 4th international crop science congress, Brisbane, Australia, 2004

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemaire G, van Oosterom E, Jeuffroz MH, Gastal F, Massignan A (2008) Crop species present different qualitative types of response to N deficiency during their vegetative growth. Field Crop Res 105:253–265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lemaire G, van Oosterom E, Sheehy J, Jeuffroy MH, Massignan A, Rossato L (2007) Is crop demand closely related to dry matter accumulation of leaf area expansion during vegetative growth? Field Crop Res 100:91–106

    Article  Google Scholar 

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  • Sinclair TR (1998) Historical changes in harvest index crop N accumulation. Crop Sci 38:638–643

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  1. INRA, Lusignan, France

    Dr. Gilles Lemaire (Directeur de Recherche)

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    Robert A. Meyers

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Lemaire, G. (2012). Crop Responses to Nitrogen . In: Meyers, R.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0851-3_385

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