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Engineering Nitrogen Utilization in Crop Plants pp 161–172Cite as

Field Testing for Improved Nitrogen Use Efficiency of Corn—From Whole-Plant Physiology to Agroecosystem Scales

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Abstract

This review provides a comparison and contrast of the different definitions of corn nitrogen use efficiency in the literature, how they have been measured, and their use in characterizing corn nitrogen fertilizer use and management at scales ranging from the plant to the agroecosystem. Critical parameters to characterize crop fertilizer nitrogen use on the farm scale are recovery efficiency of fertilizer nitrogen (REN, the percent of fertilizer N captured by the crop) and agronomic efficiency of fertilizer nitrogen (AEN, the incremental yield increase per unit N applied). Crop physiology studies of nitrogen use measure nitrogen acquisition and utilization directly; N budget methods using destructive harvests are the most common. Environmental variation in N availability can affect all crop nitrogen use parameters. To fully account for environmental variation in N availability, it is necessary to combine several measurements. Measurements of root zone soil N at planting, residual root zone soil N at harvest, and measurement of plant N capture from an unfertilized check plot provide an estimate of net N availability during the growing season. This quantitative estimate of net N availability can provide a basis for comparisons of experiments conducted across multiple locations which vary in indigenous N supply.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Monsanto Company, 700 Chesterfield Parkway West, Chesterfield, MO, 63017, USA

    Kevin R. Kosola

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  1. Kevin R. Kosola
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Correspondence to Kevin R. Kosola .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Biotechnology, Monsanto Company, Chesterfield, Missouri, USA

    Ashok Shrawat

  2. Biotechnology, Monsanto Company, Chesterfield, Missouri, USA

    Adel Zayed

  3. Department of Plant, Soil and Agricultural Systems, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois, USA

    David A. Lightfoot

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Kosola, K.R. (2018). Field Testing for Improved Nitrogen Use Efficiency of Corn—From Whole-Plant Physiology to Agroecosystem Scales. In: Shrawat, A., Zayed, A., Lightfoot, D. (eds) Engineering Nitrogen Utilization in Crop Plants. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92958-3_9

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