Nutrient use efficiency and utilisation in east coast Australian Eucalyptus forests

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (8) ◽  
pp. 585
Author(s):  
John Turner

Nutrient use efficiency (NUE) has been used as a method to evaluate the utilisation and processes of cycling of nutrient in forests. In publications, different methods have been used to calculate NUE, but as efficiency they are all expressed as ratios and these cover the basic areas of: (1) absorption from the soil and uptake, (2) efficiency in their requirement or utilisation of nutrients including physiological efficiency and (3) efficiency in the retention and internal re-utilisation of nutrients. Few studies address NUE based on complete nutrient cycling information but use indices based on litterfall or foliage nutrient concentrations. In this study different expressions of NUE were defined and evaluated for N and P using data on nutrient cycles on species in the genus Eucalyptus in regrowth and mature native eastern Australian forests. It has been hypothesised that NUE increases with decreasing nutrient availability however increasing such efficiency has a cost reflected in reduced productivity. The hypothesis was proven for all expressions of NUE correlating NUE against estimates of soil N or P availability but there were differences between coastal and tableland Eucalyptus forests. The level of significance varied for different types of NUE and in these ecosystems P was of greater significance than N. This reflected the importance of P in relation to productivity on many of the weathered soils or the limited value of the soil available N indices. It is suggested that the difference expressions of NUE differ in their significance with species so some will be relatively more efficient in terms of uptake, others in utilisation and others in redistribution. Only in extreme situations of nutrient availability do species have relatively high efficiency for all methods NUE calculation. It is proposed that these differences are of importance in site/species distribution and more importantly in mixed stands where they provide advantages either at different stages of stand development or after significant disturbances such as fire.

2014 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. 558 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Turner ◽  
Marcia J. Lambert

Alternative indices to use for nutrient use efficiency (NUE) were analysed for nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and sulfur, using 17 Eucalyptus pilularis forest sites to test the hypothesis that NUE increases with decreasing nutrient availability. Reported indices represent different measures of nutrient use, including (1) efficiency of acquisition from soil, (2) quantities required for organic matter production, (3) organic matter production related to uptake, (4) ability to internally retranslocate nutrients and (5) physiological requirement of nutrients. Some indices are highly correlated but the highest correlations were according to age. Phosphorus, the main growth-limiting nutrient, on average, produced 6.5 and 10.9 t of organic matter per kilogram of phosphorus required and taken up from soil, respectively. Comparable estimates were made for other nutrients. NUEs of mobile nutrients increased with decreases in nutrient availability and this supported the hypotheses when age was taken into account. The NUEs of one nutrient are not independent of other nutrients. The inverse of foliage nutrient concentration is a valuable low-cost index of nutrient utilisation and correlates with net primary production/nutrient requirement, and is related to age. Resorption of nutrients, comparing new and abscised tissue, was of low value, but abscised-tissue nutrient correlations are related to a lower benchmark and are of value. The use of selected NUE indices for species comparison was discussed.


2006 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Bielefeld Nardoto ◽  
Mercedes Maria da Cunha Bustamante ◽  
Alexandre Siqueira Pinto ◽  
Carlos Augusto Klink

Nutrient resorption efficiency of woody plants, litterfall and nutrient fluxes were investigated in a burned and an unburned cerrado plot between October 1997 and September 1999. A large experiment (Fire Project, Brasília, Brazil) on the effects of prescribed burnings was initiated in 1992. Cerrado plots were delimited and subjected to different fire regimes. Seasonal trend of litterfall was similar in both plots but the production in the burned plot was 42.2 g m−2 y−1 before the fourth prescribed fire (September 1998) and decreased by 22% 1 y after burning while in the unburned plot it was around 230 gm−2 y−1. Although nutrient concentrations in leaf litter were higher in the burned plot, the nutrient fluxes were 60–80% lower than in the unburned plot. Nutrient use efficiency (ecosystem level) was 4373 for P and 137 for N. Measured resorption efficiency for 10 cerrado species ranged from 14.5 to 37.2% for N and from 40 to 70.4% for P and in general, there were no differences between plots. N is in short supply, partly because of fire history, but the results, both at ecosystem and species levels (mean N/P in fresh leaves was 18), indicated a stronger limitation by P than by N.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 270-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ciro Maia ◽  
Júlio César DoVale ◽  
Roberto Fritsche-Neto ◽  
Paulo Cezar Cavatte ◽  
Glauco Vieira Miranda

This study aimed to verify the relationship between breeding for tolerance to low levels of soil nutrients and for nutrient use efficiency in tropical maize. Fifteen inbred lines were evaluated in two greenhouse experiments under contrasting levels of N and P. The relationship between nutritional efficiency and tolerance to nutritional stress was estimated by the Spearman ranking correlation between the genotypes for the traits related to N and P use efficiency and phenotypic plasticity indices. The lack of relationship between the traits, in magnitude as well as significance, indicates that these characters are controlled by different gene groups. Consequently, simultaneous selection for both nutrient use efficiency and tolerance to nutritional stress is possible, if the mechanisms that confer efficiency and tolerance are not competitive.


1995 ◽  
Vol 145 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott D. Bridgham ◽  
John Pastor ◽  
Charles A. McClaugherty ◽  
Curtis J. Richardson

Author(s):  
John R. Porter ◽  
Peter J. Thorburn ◽  
Hamish E. Brown ◽  
Edmar I. Teixeira ◽  
Derrick J. Moot ◽  
...  

Highlights- Novel ideosystem method of analysing processes of food production, focussing on resource use efficiencies.- Interactions between resource use efficiencies are asymmetrical. - The ideosystem concept portrays how far a production system approaches maximum efficiency.   Food production per unit land area needs to be increased, thus cropping systems need to use nutrients, water and solar radiation at as close to maximal efficiencies as possible. We deconstruct these efficiencies into their components to define a theoretical crop ideosystem, in which all resource use efficiencies are maximised. This defines an upper biological limit to food production. We then quantify the difference between maximum use efficiencies and those observed in three agronomic systems (maize, cocksfoot, sugarcane) and identify how, in actual farm systems, efficiencies can be raised to raise food production. We find that crop nutrient use efficiency can be limited by low water availability; thus adding nutrients would not raise production but adding water would. The converse situation of water use efficiency being affected by nutrition is not as evident. Ideosystem thinking can be used to define small- and large-scale agronomic systems that optimize water and nutrient use to maximise food production.


Agropedology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
K.D. Kale ◽  
◽  
D.D. Pawar ◽  
U.S. Surve ◽  
S.S. Jadhav ◽  
...  

A field experiment was conducted during 2010-2011 in medium deep clay soils at the Research Farm of Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, Maharashtra to find out the effect of drip fertigation on yield and nutrient use efficiency of banana (cv. Grand naine). The treatments comprised of 100, 80 and 60 % recommended dose (RD) of fertilizer applied through drip in two schedules (Schedule A-equal, Schedule B crop growth stage), drip irrigation with only N through drip, drip with conventional fertilizers through soil and surface irrigation as control. The drip irrigation increased banana yield by 59.6 per cent and saved fertilizer to the tune of 40 per cent .The treatment comprising of 100 % RD of fertigation (schedule B) had maximum banana yield (81.84 t ha-1) over surface irrigation (51.26 t ha-1), however, it was at par with 100 % RD of fertigation in uniform 16 splits and 80 % RD of fertigation. Application of water soluble fertilizers through drip resulted in highest nutrient availability than control. In general, 100 % RD had the highest nutrient availability than 80 % and 40 % RD of fertilizer. The nutrient availability was more in treatment in which fertilizers were applied as per growth stages (schedule B) than equal splits (schedule A). The uptake of nutrients was higher in fertigated treatments than other treatments


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepranjan Sarkar ◽  
Ardith Sankar ◽  
O. Siva Devika ◽  
Sonam Singh ◽  
Shikha ◽  
...  

AbstractConventional agricultural practices and rising energy crisis create a question about the sustainability of the present-day food production system. Nutrient exhaustive crops can have a severe impact on native soil fertility by causing nutrient mining. In this backdrop, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of bio-priming intervention in red cabbage production considering nutrient uptake, the annual change in soil fertility, nutrient use efficiency, energy budgeting, and economic benefits for its sustainable intensification, among resource-poor farmers of Middle Gangetic Plains. The compatible microbial agents used in the study include Trichoderma harzianum, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Bacillus subtilis. Field assays (2016–2017 and 2017–2018) of the present study revealed supplementing 75% of recommended NPK fertilizer with dual inoculation of T. harzianum and P. fluorescens increased macronutrient uptake (N, P, and K), root length, heading percentage, head diameter, head weight, and the total weight of red cabbage along with a positive annual change in soil organic carbon. Maximum positive annual change in available N and available P was recorded under 75% RDF + P. fluorescens + B. subtilis and 75% RDF + T. harzianum + B. subtilis, respectively. Bio-primed plants were also higher in terms of growth and nutrient use efficiency (agronomic efficiency, physiological efficiency, apparent recovery efficiency, partial factor productivity). Energy output (26,370 and 26,630 MJ ha−1), energy balance (13,643 and 13,903 MJ ha−1), maximum gross return (US $ 16,030 and 13,877 ha−1), and net return (US $ 15,966 and 13,813 ha−1) were considerably higher in T. harzianum, and P. fluorescens treated plants. The results suggest the significance of the bio-priming approach under existing integrated nutrient management strategies and the role of dual inoculations in producing synergistic effects on plant growth and maintaining the soil, food, and energy nexus.


1985 ◽  
Vol 63 (8) ◽  
pp. 1476-1481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph E. J. Boerner

To determine the relative importance of soil moisture and soil nutrient availability in determining levels of nutrient use efficiency, seasonal nutrient dynamics and growth rates were determined for individuals of Hamamelis virginiana L., an understory tree, in three forest microsites. The mixed oak site had the lowest levels of soil nutrients and moisture, the mixed mesophytic site the highest nutrient availability, and the valley bottom the highest moisture levels. Foliar nitrogen and phosphorus levels declined over the season in all trees, while calcium levels increased with time. Relative growth rates did not differ significantly among sites, though growth varied inversely with tree mass. Proportional nitrogen resorption was highest in trees at the fertile mesophytic site. Phosphorus and calcium use efficiency were higher at the infertile mixed oak site than the others, and phosphorus resorption was highest in trees from the mixed oak site. Projected nitrogen uptake needs for the next growing season were least at the mixed mesophytic site, while projected phosphorus uptake needs were least at the mixed oak site. Within the ranges of moisture and soil pH – nutrient availability present, growth and nitrogen dynamics seemed most closely correlated to soil moisture, and phosphorus dynamics to phosphorus availability. This differential dependence among elements on moisture levels is suggested to be the underlying reason for differences in the form of the relationship between proportional resorption and soil availability of N and P for a variety of woody species.


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