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Optimising non-destructive sampling methods to study nitrogen use efficiency throughout the growth-cycle of giant C4 crops

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Abstract

Aims

The improvement of nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of crops allows crop nitrogen (N) demands to be met while reducing N supply, and so reducing excess N which has potential negative environmental implications. NUE is often determined destructively at the end of crop growth-cycles without considering temporal variability. Here we present a methodological study which optimises the determination of NUE throughout the sugarcane growth-cycle using minimally destructive methods, and suggest the use of these methods for non-destructive NUE determination over the growth-cycle of other giant C4 crops.

Methods and results

The determination of the NUE relied on the optimisation of three methods: the estimation of aboveground biomass, N content and N derived from fertiliser (NdfF). First, the ability of different allometric relationships to estimate sugarcane biomass was investigated by selecting a relationship based on height and diameter to estimate aboveground biomass along the crop growth-cycle. Secondly, we assessed the minimum number of harvested sugarcane required to construct a dilution curve to predict N content from biomass and found that a sampling of 5 sugarcane at 3 dates was sufficient to represent aboveground N content over the growth-cycle. Finally, the ability of 15N content of individual leaves to represent the NdfF in 15N-fertilised cane was tested. The first and second leaf below the top visible dewlap were the most representative. Based on a variance analysis, we assessed the level of influence of each method on the NUE calculation. Crop age accounted for 54% of the variance of NUE, the choice of 15N leaf 13%, with the choice of model to estimate biomass and the number of plants harvested for the N dilution curve, each accounting for less than 2% over the four sampling dates.

Conclusions

This study highlighted the importance of evaluating NUE not only at the point of harvest. We propose, therefore, a set of methods to study NUE throughout the sugarcane growth-cycle by using minimally destructive sampling.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Bernard Schroeder for his initial reviewing and suggestions for our paper.

Thank you to Didier Baret and Jules Philippe Nirlo for sample processing.

The site belongs to SOERE PRO, which is supported annually by Allenvi and the French national research infrastructure, ANAEE-F (http://www.anaee-france.fr/fr/).

We thank the Conseil Regional de La Réunion, the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the European Union (Feder program, grant n°GURTDI 20151501-0000735) and Cirad for funding A. Versini and M. Christina within the framework of the project ‘Services et impacts des activités agricoles en milieu tropical’ (Siaam).

We would also like to thank SILVATECH (Silvatech, INRA, 2018. Structural and functional analysis of tree and wood Facility, doi: https://doi.org/10.15454/1.5572400113627854E12) from UMR 1434 SILVA, 1136 IAM, 1138 BEF and 4370 EA LERMAB EEF for 15N isotopic analysis. SILVATECH facility is supported by the French National Research Agency through the Laboratory of Excellence ARBRE (ANR-11-LABX-0002-01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIRAD, UPR Recyclage et risque, 97743, Saint-Denis, La Réunion, France

    Daniel Mika-Nsimbi Poultney & Antoine Versini

  2. Recyclage et Risque, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD, Montpellier, France

    Daniel Mika-Nsimbi Poultney & Antoine Versini

  3. Runéo, 53 Rue Sainte-Anne, 97400, Saint-Denis, Réunion, France

    Daniel Mika-Nsimbi Poultney

  4. CIRAD, UPR Aïda, 97743, Saint-Denis, La Réunion, France

    Mathias Christina

  5. Aïda, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD, Montpellier, France

    Mathias Christina

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  1. Daniel Mika-Nsimbi Poultney
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Correspondence to Antoine Versini.

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Poultney, D.MN., Christina, M. & Versini, A. Optimising non-destructive sampling methods to study nitrogen use efficiency throughout the growth-cycle of giant C4 crops. Plant Soil 453, 597–613 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-020-04611-3

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