Estimation of Corn Yield and Soil Nitrogen via Soil Electrical Conductivity Measurement Treated with Organic, Chemical and Biological Fertilizers

پژوهشهای زراعی ایران

Article 6, Volume 13, Issue 4 - Serial Number 40, January 2016, Pages 786-796   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/gsc.v13i4.33938

Authors

H Khalilzadeh^* ; M Jahan; M Nasiri mahalati

Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Abstract

Introduction
Around the world maize is the second crop with the most cultivated areas and amount of production, so as the most important strategic crop, have a special situation in policies, decision making, resources and inputs allocation. On the other side, negative environmental consequences of intensive consumption of agrochemicals resulted to change view concerning food production. One of the most important visions is sustainable production of enough food plus attention to social, economic and environmental aspects. Many researchers stated that the first step to achieve this goal is optimization and improvement of resources use efficiencies. According to little knowledge on relation between soil electrical conductivity and yield of maize, beside the environmental concerns about nitrogen consumption and need to replace chemical nitrogen by ecological inputs, this study designed and aimed to evaluate agroecological characteristics of corn and some soil characteristics as affected by application of organic and biological fertilizers under field conditions.
Materials and Methods
In order to probing the possibility of grain yield and soil nitrogen estimation via measurement of soil properties, a field experiment was conducted during growing season 2010 at Research Station, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications was used. Treatments included: 1- manure (30 ton ha-1), 2-vermicompost (10 ton ha-1), 3- nitroxin (containing Azotobacter sp. and Azospirillum sp., inoculation was done according to Kennedy et al.), 4- nitrogen as urea (400 kg ha-1) and 5- control (without fertilizer). Studied traits were soil pH, soil EC, soil respiration rate, N content of soil and maize yield. Soil respiration rate was measured using equation 1:
CO2= (V0- V)× N×22 Equation 1
In which V0 is the volume of consumed acid for control treatment titration, V is of the volume of consumed acid for sample treatment titration, N is acid normality.
The microbial respiration (mgCO2/g(dry soil).day1 calculated by dividing the record CO2 volume to number of days that sample have been placed on container plus dry weight of soil sample.
Results and Discussion
Results showed that soils treated with vermicompost and manure had the highest level of nitrogen during the growing season. Higher microbial respiration was recorded in soils treated with biological fertilizer. Changes in soil nitrogen and electrical conductivity was against each other and correlation results showed that soil nitrogen could be estimated via measurement of soil electrical conductivity. Changes of pH and soil nitrogen were similar and there was a significant correlation between them. Eigenberg et al. (8) suggested that the pattern of changes of soil electrical conductivity is highly dependent on soil conditions; also soil water and nutrient content are of the most important factors in determining soil EC. There is a significant and negative correlation between soil electrical conductivity and grain yield and it seems that in this region grain yield of maize can be estimated via measurement of soil electrical conductivity.
Conclusions
In general, the results indicated that there was a strong and negative relation between EC and soil N content. Also, soil EC showed a negative correlation with maize yield which suggested that it is possible to estimate soil N and maize yield through soil EC measurement during of the growing season in the study area.

Keywords

Manure; Microbial respiration; Nitroxin; pH; Vermicompost

References

1. Black, C. A., Evans, D. D., White, J. L., Ensminger, L. E., and Clark, F. E. 1965. Methods of soil analysis, part 2, Chemical and microbiological properties. American Society of Agronomy.

2. Bremner, J. M., and Mulvaney, C. S. 1965. Nitrogen-Total. In: Methods of soil analysis: part 2, Chemical and Microbiological Properties. Page, A. L. (Ed). 1982. Second Edition. American Society of Agronomy Inc. Madison, Wisconsin USA. Agronomy Series 9 (2): 596-622.

3. Briones, M. J. I., Barreal, M. E., Harrison, A. C., and Gallego, P. P. 2011. Earthworms and nitrogen applications to improve soil health in an intensively cultivated kiwifruit orchard. Applied Soil Ecology 49: 158-166.

4. Chaoui, H. I., Zibilske, L. M., and Ohno, T. 2003 .Effects of earthworm casts and compost on soil microbial activity and plant nutrient availability. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 35: 295-302.

5. Clark M. S., Horwath W. R., Shennan C., and Scow, K. M. 1998. Changes in soil chemical properties resulting from organic and low-input farming practices. Agronomy Journal 90: 662-671.

6. Corwin, D. L., and Lesch, S. M. 2005. Apparent soil electrical conductivity measurements in agriculture. Computer, Electronic and Agriculture 46: 11-44.

7. Eghball, B., and Power, J. F. 1999. Composted and non-composted manure application to conventional and no-tillage system: corn yield and nitrogen uptake. Agronomy Journal 91: 819-825.

8. Eigenberg, R. A., Doran, J. W., Nienaber, J. A., Ferguson, R. B., and Woodbury, B. L. 2002. Electrical conductivity monitoring of soil condition and available N with animal manure and a cover crop. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 88: 183-193.

9. Emam, Y. 2003. Cereal farming. Shiraz university publication. (in Persian).

10. Franzen, D., Long, D., Sims, A., Lamb, J., Casey, F., Staricka, J., Halvorson, M., and Hofman, V. 2011. Evaluation of methods to determine residual soil nitrate zones across the northern Great Plains of the USA. Precision Agriculture 12 (4): 594-607.

11. Gajda, A. M., Doran, J. W., Weinhold, B. J., Kettler, T. A., Pikul, Jr. J. L., and Cambadella, C. A. 2000. Soil quality evaluations of alternative and conventional management systems in the Plains. In: Lal R., Kimble J. F., Follett, R. F., Stewart B. A. (Eds.), Methods of Assessment of Soil Carbon, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

12. Hoyle, F. C., and Murphy, D. V. 2011. Influence of organic residues and soil incorporation on temporal measures of microbial biomass and plant available nitrogen. Plant and Soil 347: 53-64.

13. Jaynes, D. B., Colvin, T. S., and Ambuel, J. 1995. Yield mapping by electromagnetic induction. p. 383-394. In: P.C. Robert et al. (ed.) Site-specific management for agricultural systems. ASA, CSSA, and SSSA, Madison, WI.

14. Johnson, C. K., Doran, J. W., Eghball, B., Eigenberg, R. A., Wienhold, B. J., and Woodbury, B. L. 2003. Status of soil electrical conductivity studies by central states researchers. American Society of Agricultural Engineers Annual International Meeting, Las Vegas.

15. Johnson, C. K., Eskridge, K. M., and Corwin, D. L. 2005. Apparent soil electrical conductivity: applications for designing and evaluating field-scale experiments. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 46: 181-202.

16. Kamkar, B., and Mahdavi-Damghani, A. 2008. Principles of sustainable agriculture. Academic Jihad publication. Mashhad. (in Persian).

17. Kanchikerimath, M., and Singh, D. 2001. Soil organic matter and biological properties after 26 years of maize-wheat-cowpea cropping as affected by manure and fertilization in a combisol India. Agriculture Ecosystem and Environment 86: 155-162.

18. Kennedy, I. R., Choudhury, A. T. A. M., and Kecskes, M. L. 2004. Non-symbiotic bacterial daizotrophs in crop-farming systems: can their potential for plant growth promotion be better exploited? Soil Biology and Biochemistry 36: 1229-1244.

19. Kitchen, N. R., Sudduth, K. A., and Drummond, S. T. 1999. Soil electrical conductivity as a crop productivity measure for claypan soils. Journal of Production Agriculture 12: 607-617.

20. Kizilkaya, R., and Hepsen, S. 2007. Microbiological properties in earthworm cast and surrounding soil amended with various organic wastes. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis 38: 2861-2876.

21. Lee, J. 2010. Effect of application method of organic fertilizer on growth, soil chemical properties and microbial densities in organic bulb onion production. Scientia Horticulturae 124: 299-305.

22. Majidian, M., Ghalavand, A., Karimian, N., and Kamkar-Haghighi, A. 2008. Effect of different levels of nitrogen, manure and irrigation on corn yield and yield components. Crops product Journal 2: 67-85. (in Persian with English abstract).

23. Manna, M. C., Jha, S., Ghosh, P. K., and Acharya, C. L. 2003. Comparative efficacy of three epigic earthworms under different deciduous forest litters decomposition. Bioresource Technology 88: 197-206.

24. Marinari, S., Masciandaro, G., Ceccanti, B., and Grego, S. 2000. Influence of organic and mineral fertilizers on soil biological and physical properties. Bioresource Technology 72: 9-17.

25. Mirzaee-Talarposhti, R., Kambozia, J., Sabahi, H., and Mahdavi-Damghani, A. 2009. Effect of organic fertilizers on soil physico-chemical properties and yield of tamato (Lycopersicon esculentum). Iranian Journal of Field Crops Research 7 (1): 257-268. (in Persian with English abstract).

26. Nelson, D. W., and Sommers, L. E. 1982. Total carbon, organic carbon and organic matter. In: Page, A. L., Miller, R. H., and Keeney, D. R. (Eds.), Methods of Soil Analysis, American Society of Agronomy. Madison, Wisconsis: 539-580.

27. Pang, X. P., and Letey, J. 2000. Organic farming: challenge of timing nitrogen availability to crop nitrogen requirements. Soil Science Society of American Journal 64: 247-253.

28. Patriquin, D. G., Blaikie, H., Patriquin, M. J., and Yang, C. 1993. On-farm measurements of pH, electrical conductivity and nitrate in soil extracts for monitoring coupling of nutrient cycles. Biology, Agriculture and Horticulture 9: 231-272.

29. Rezaeenejad, Y., and Afyooni, M. 2001. Effect of organic matters on soil chemical properties, elements uptake by corn and corn yield. Agriculture and Natural Resources Sciences and Technologies 4 (4): 19-28. (in Persian with English abstract).

30. Sharma, P., Shukla, M. K., and Mexal, J. G. 2011. Spatial variability of soil properties in agricultural fields of southern New Mexico. Soil Science, Article in Press.

31. Sudduth, K. A., Kitchen, N. R., Hughes, D. F., and Drummond, S. T. 1995. Electromagnetic induction sensing as an indicator or productivity on claypan soils. p. 671-681. In: P.C. Robert et al. (Eds.) Site-specific management for agricultural systems. ASA, CSSA, and SSSA, Madison, WI.