The scarcity and distribution of rainfall drove the performance (i.e., mitigation of N oxide emissions, crop yield and quality) of calcium ammonium nitrate management in a wheat crop under rainfed semiarid conditions

ABSTRACT

Selection and management of synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizers, including nitrification inhibitors, are considered an effective strategy to mitigate N oxide emissions, but depends strongly on soil characteristics and climatic conditions. We evaluated the effect of the use of a nitrification inhibitor (2-(3,4-dimethyl-1H-pyrazol-1-yl) succinic acid isomeric mixture (DMPSA)) or splitting calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) on the N oxides and CH₄ emissions, yield, N use efficiency (NUE) and bread-making quality in a winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) crop. During a typical rainfall cropping season, neither splitting CAN nor using DMPSA reduced significantly the area-scaled or yield-scaled emissions in comparison to a single application of CAN without inhibitors. This could be explained by the low emissions in CAN amended plots. Conversely, in the subsequent extremely dry cropping season, higher N oxide peaks occurred after soil rewetting and the effectiveness of DMPSA was significant in these conditions (e.g. 83% mitigation for NO). No improvement in the NUE, yield or bread-making quality was achieved with a split application or DMPSA added to the fertilizer. Under the conditions of the study, splitting CAN should not be recommended from a yield-scaled emissions viewpoint, while the use of DMPSA may be encouraged due to large variability in the amount and distribution of rainfall.

KEYWORDS:

• DMPSA
• fertilization timing
• glutenin proteins
• greenhouse gas emissions
• gliadin proteins

Acknowledgements

Special thanks are given to the field assistants working with us at Centro Nacional de Tecnología de Regadíos (CENTER), particularly to Alejandro Sánchez de Ribera. We also thank the technicians at the Department of Chemistry and Food Technology of the ETSIAAB. We thank José Manuel Álvarez, Mónica Montoya, Jaime Recio, Alberto Sanz-Cobena, Pedro Jimena, Patricia Giraldo and Laura Sánchez-Martín for the temporary help at field, laboratory or for their minor suggestions for the manuscript. This study was conducted in the frame of the Moncloa Campus of International Excellence (UCM-UPM).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

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Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by the ERDF-co-financed grants [AGL2015-64582-C3-3-R] (MINECO-FEDER) and [AGL2015-64582-2-R] (MINECO-FEDER) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, by the Autonomous Community of Madrid through the Agrisost Project [P2013/ABI-2717] and by the Basque Government [IT-932-16]. G. Guardia was the recipient of the FPI grant [BES-2013-063749]. Funding for this research was also provided by EuroChem Agro GmbH. The funders had no role in the data collection and analysis or preparation of the manuscript.