Long-term fertilization effects on crop yields, soil fertility and sustainability in the Static Fertilization Experiment Bad Lauchstädt under climatic conditions 2001–2010

Abstract

The Static Fertilization Experiment Bad Lauchstädt (1902) consists of a crop rotation of sugar beets, spring barley, potatoes and winter wheat. Three farmyard manure (FYM) treatments and six mineral fertilizer treatments are combined orthogonally. Comparing the first and last decades, crop yields nearly doubled. In unfertilized plots, yields and N uptake by crops also increased when comparing first and last decades. On average for the decade 2001–2010, N uptake in unfertilized plots amounted 51.6 kg ha⁻¹. Although soil organic carbon (SOC) levels for unfertilized plots remain almost unchanged, SOC increases slowly in the most highly fertilized treatment, resulting in a gradual widening of differences in SOC between the most extreme treatments to 0.952%. Climate change and increased harvesting and root residues due to rising yields are suggested as an explanation. Except for the plot with the highest application of mineral and organic fertilizer, in all treatments more N was taken up by crops than was applied by fertilizers. Higher FYM input leads to more unfavourable N balances because N release from FYM cannot be controlled. Considering atmospheric N input, only in the exclusively mineral fertilized treatment is N balanced out. Similar results are found for C balances: the exclusively mineral fertilized treatment shows the most favourable C balance.

Keywords:

• long-term experiment
• crop yields
• soil organic carbon
• nitrogen
• fertilization