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The regime and P availability of omitting P fertilizer application for rice in rice/wheat rotation in the Taihu Lake Region of southern China

  • Soils, Sec 1 • Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Nutrient Cycling • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

In the Taihu Lake Region (TLR) of China, farmers’ injudicious and excessive use of phosphorus (P) fertilizer has led to a dramatic spike in P accumulation. In view of that, the water flooding practice can increase soil P release and enhance P availability in rice season, compared with the strong P fixation in wheat season; it seems possible to save P fertilizer in rice season with the aim of reducing P loads without any crop yield declines.

Materials and methods

To validate this possibility, a 4-year pot experiment encompassing eight rice/wheat seasons and using four paddy soils with varying Olsen-P contents (6.16 to 40.95 mg kg−1) was conducted to compare rice/wheat yield, inorganic and organic P accumulation under four different P regimes, P fertilization for both rice and wheat (PR + W; conventional practice), P fertilization only for wheat (PW), P fertilization only for rice (PR), and no P fertilization for both seasons (Pzero).

Results and discussion

Compared with conventional PR + W treatment, PR treatment significantly decreased wheat yields, especially in medium- and low-P soils, with an Olsen-P concentrate decline of 34.4–62.8 %. In contrast, PW treatment showed no significant difference in the rice/wheat yields over 4 years irrespective of high-, medium-, and low-P-concentrated soils, despite the soil Olsen-P concentration declining by 34.9–64.4 %. This highlights the feasibility of omitting P fertilizer application to flooded rice for at least 4 years in rice/wheat cropping paddy fields while maintaining crop yields and reducing environmental risk. In four paddy soils, available inorganic P was the dominant effective P source and increased with the concentration of Olsen-P. Without P fertilization over time, the concentration of soil inorganic P fractions declined and organic P remained relatively constant.

Conclusions

According to the P supply capacity of different soils under the regime of omitting P fertilization for rice, how to utilize the bioavailability of P in different P supply capacity soils when P fertilization is omitted for rice crops will be required in future work.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the National Basic Research and Development Program (No. 2015CB150403), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDB15020402), the Special S&T Project on Treatment and Control of Water Pollution (No. 2012ZX07101-004), and grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21307141).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Yu Wang, Xu Zhao, Yujun Wang, Shenqiang Wang & Guangxi Xing

  2. Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Lei Wang

  3. Environmental Soil Chemistry Group, Delaware Environmental Institute, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA

    Wei Li

Authors
  1. Yu Wang
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  2. Xu Zhao
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  3. Lei Wang
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  4. Yujun Wang
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  5. Wei Li
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  6. Shenqiang Wang
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  7. Guangxi Xing
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Correspondence to Shenqiang Wang.

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Responsible editor: Leo Condron

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Wang, Y., Zhao, X., Wang, L. et al. The regime and P availability of omitting P fertilizer application for rice in rice/wheat rotation in the Taihu Lake Region of southern China. J Soils Sediments 15, 844–853 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-014-1047-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-014-1047-5

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