Maize （Zea mays L.） is an important food crop in Niger, but low and irregular rainfall combined with sandy soils having low fertility level limit productivity. A two-year study was conducted at Institut National de ...Maize （Zea mays L.） is an important food crop in Niger, but low and irregular rainfall combined with sandy soils having low fertility level limit productivity. A two-year study was conducted at Institut National de Recherche Agronomique du Niger （INRAN） stations in Tarna/Maradi and Bengou/Gaya in 2014 and 2015 in order to evaluate maize agronomic and economic fertilizer use efficiency. The experimental design was a randomised complete block design （RCBD） with three replications. Results indicate higher effect of fertilizer in 2015 compared to 2014. At low N rates 20 kg N/ha and 40 kg N/ha, application of 20 kg P/ha increased maize grain yield across locations and years. The highest agronomic efficiency of N （AEN） was recorded with 60 kg N/ha in 2015 at Bengou and Tarna with 9.65 kg and 14.05 kg grain yield per kg of applied N, respectively. At Tarna, the low N rates of 20 kg N/ha and 40 kg N/ha recorded important AEN of more than 12 kg yield increases per kg of applied N. The highest rainfall use efficiency （RUE） of 6.13 kg/year/mm was obtained with application of 80 kg/ha N, 0 kg/ha P and 40 kg/ha N, 20 kg/ha P in 2015 at Tarna. Without P, the highest value cost ratio （VCR） value of 4.31 was recorded at Tarna in 2015 with 60 kg/ha N, and the lowest value of 0.08 at Bengou in 2014 with 20 kg/ha N. Based on VCR and RUE derived from this study, the optimal fertilizer recommendation for maize in the semi-arid conditions of Niger could be 40 kg/ha N, 20 kg/ha P and 0 kg/ha K.展开更多
Aiming for the restoration of degraded ecosystems, many ecological engineering projects have been implemented around the world. This study investigates the ecological engineering project effectiveness on vegetation re...Aiming for the restoration of degraded ecosystems, many ecological engineering projects have been implemented around the world. This study investigates the ecological engineering project effectiveness on vegetation restoration in the Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Region(BTSSR) from 2000 to 2010 based on the rain use efficiency(RUE) trend in relation to the land cover. More than half of the BTSSR experienced a vegetation productivity increase from 2000 to 2010, with the increasing intensity being sensitive to the indicators chosen. A clear tendency towards smaller increasing areas was shown when using the net primary productivity(NPP, 51.30%) instead of the accumulated normalized difference vegetation index(59.30%). The short-term variation in the precipitation and intra-seasonal precipitation distribution had a great impact on the remote sensing-based vegetation productivity. However, the residual trends method(RESTREND) effectively eliminated this correlation, while incorporating the variance and skewness of the precipitation distribution increased the models′ ability to explain the vegetation productivity variation. The RUE combined with land cover dynamics was valid for the effectiveness assessment of the ecological engineering projects on vegetation restoration. Particularly, the result based on growing season accumulated normalized difference vegetation index(ΣNDVI) residuals was the most effective, showing that 47.39% of the BTSSR experienced vegetation restoration from 2000 to 2010. The effectiveness of the ecological engineering projects differed for each subarea and was proportional to the strength of ecological engineering. The water erosion region dominated by woodland showed the best restoration, followed by the wind-water erosion crisscross regions, while the wind erosion regions dominated by grassland showed the worst effect. Seriously degraded regions still cover more area in the BTSSR than restored regions. Therefore, more future effort should be put in restoring degraded land.展开更多
Legumes and non-legumes usually differ in using soil water and nutrients.Both water and nutrients are scarce in the semi-arid Mu Us Sandland where legume and/or non-legume shrubs coexist/dominate.Here,we addressed the...Legumes and non-legumes usually differ in using soil water and nutrients.Both water and nutrients are scarce in the semi-arid Mu Us Sandland where legume and/or non-legume shrubs coexist/dominate.Here,we addressed the responses of legume versus nonlegume shrubs to different soil water and nutrient conditions.Methods We conducted an experiment in which a legume(Hedysarum laeve)and a non-legume(Artemisia ordosica)were used,both of which are dominant species in the Mu Us Sandland.Seedlings of these two species were subjected to three water levels(45.0,67.5 and 90.0 ml every 3 days)and three nutrient treatments(0,0.1%and 0.2%nutrient solution every week)during the experiment.Important Findings Interactions between water and nutrients on total biomass,root weight ratio and rain use efficiency(RUE)were detected in A.ordosica but not in H.laeve,suggesting that water effects on A.ordosica but not on H.laeve are dependent on soil nutrients.Nutrient addition alleviated drought stress and increased RUE in A.ordosica.The interspecific differences in response to soil water and nutrients may be linked to the ability of plants to fix nitrogen.In addition,under lowsoil water or nutrient conditions,H.laeve produced more biomass than A.ordosica,and the opposite was the case under high-soil resources.The relationship between relative growth rate(RGR)and RUE[or nutrient use efficiency(NUE)]varied with two species.RGR of A.ordosica was positively correlated with both RUE and NUE while RGR of H.laeve was negatively correlated with NUE.The different responses may be linked to the trade-off between high-growth rate and low-resource use efficiency.展开更多
文摘Maize （Zea mays L.） is an important food crop in Niger, but low and irregular rainfall combined with sandy soils having low fertility level limit productivity. A two-year study was conducted at Institut National de Recherche Agronomique du Niger （INRAN） stations in Tarna/Maradi and Bengou/Gaya in 2014 and 2015 in order to evaluate maize agronomic and economic fertilizer use efficiency. The experimental design was a randomised complete block design （RCBD） with three replications. Results indicate higher effect of fertilizer in 2015 compared to 2014. At low N rates 20 kg N/ha and 40 kg N/ha, application of 20 kg P/ha increased maize grain yield across locations and years. The highest agronomic efficiency of N （AEN） was recorded with 60 kg N/ha in 2015 at Bengou and Tarna with 9.65 kg and 14.05 kg grain yield per kg of applied N, respectively. At Tarna, the low N rates of 20 kg N/ha and 40 kg N/ha recorded important AEN of more than 12 kg yield increases per kg of applied N. The highest rainfall use efficiency （RUE） of 6.13 kg/year/mm was obtained with application of 80 kg/ha N, 0 kg/ha P and 40 kg/ha N, 20 kg/ha P in 2015 at Tarna. Without P, the highest value cost ratio （VCR） value of 4.31 was recorded at Tarna in 2015 with 60 kg/ha N, and the lowest value of 0.08 at Bengou in 2014 with 20 kg/ha N. Based on VCR and RUE derived from this study, the optimal fertilizer recommendation for maize in the semi-arid conditions of Niger could be 40 kg/ha N, 20 kg/ha P and 0 kg/ha K.
基金Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.41571421)National Science and Technology Major Project of China(No.21-Y30B05-9001-13/15)
文摘Aiming for the restoration of degraded ecosystems, many ecological engineering projects have been implemented around the world. This study investigates the ecological engineering project effectiveness on vegetation restoration in the Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Region(BTSSR) from 2000 to 2010 based on the rain use efficiency(RUE) trend in relation to the land cover. More than half of the BTSSR experienced a vegetation productivity increase from 2000 to 2010, with the increasing intensity being sensitive to the indicators chosen. A clear tendency towards smaller increasing areas was shown when using the net primary productivity(NPP, 51.30%) instead of the accumulated normalized difference vegetation index(59.30%). The short-term variation in the precipitation and intra-seasonal precipitation distribution had a great impact on the remote sensing-based vegetation productivity. However, the residual trends method(RESTREND) effectively eliminated this correlation, while incorporating the variance and skewness of the precipitation distribution increased the models′ ability to explain the vegetation productivity variation. The RUE combined with land cover dynamics was valid for the effectiveness assessment of the ecological engineering projects on vegetation restoration. Particularly, the result based on growing season accumulated normalized difference vegetation index(ΣNDVI) residuals was the most effective, showing that 47.39% of the BTSSR experienced vegetation restoration from 2000 to 2010. The effectiveness of the ecological engineering projects differed for each subarea and was proportional to the strength of ecological engineering. The water erosion region dominated by woodland showed the best restoration, followed by the wind-water erosion crisscross regions, while the wind erosion regions dominated by grassland showed the worst effect. Seriously degraded regions still cover more area in the BTSSR than restored regions. Therefore, more future effort should be put in restoring degraded land.
基金This work was supported by the grants from Chinese Academy of Sciences(KZCX2-YW-431)State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change(Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences)(VEWALNE-project).
文摘Legumes and non-legumes usually differ in using soil water and nutrients.Both water and nutrients are scarce in the semi-arid Mu Us Sandland where legume and/or non-legume shrubs coexist/dominate.Here,we addressed the responses of legume versus nonlegume shrubs to different soil water and nutrient conditions.Methods We conducted an experiment in which a legume(Hedysarum laeve)and a non-legume(Artemisia ordosica)were used,both of which are dominant species in the Mu Us Sandland.Seedlings of these two species were subjected to three water levels(45.0,67.5 and 90.0 ml every 3 days)and three nutrient treatments(0,0.1%and 0.2%nutrient solution every week)during the experiment.Important Findings Interactions between water and nutrients on total biomass,root weight ratio and rain use efficiency(RUE)were detected in A.ordosica but not in H.laeve,suggesting that water effects on A.ordosica but not on H.laeve are dependent on soil nutrients.Nutrient addition alleviated drought stress and increased RUE in A.ordosica.The interspecific differences in response to soil water and nutrients may be linked to the ability of plants to fix nitrogen.In addition,under lowsoil water or nutrient conditions,H.laeve produced more biomass than A.ordosica,and the opposite was the case under high-soil resources.The relationship between relative growth rate(RGR)and RUE[or nutrient use efficiency(NUE)]varied with two species.RGR of A.ordosica was positively correlated with both RUE and NUE while RGR of H.laeve was negatively correlated with NUE.The different responses may be linked to the trade-off between high-growth rate and low-resource use efficiency.
