In east-central Illinois, fertilizer sales during the past 20 yr suggest that approximately half of the fertilizer nitrogen (N) applied to corn ( L.) occurs in the fall; however, fall fertilizer N sales were greatly reduced in 2009 as wet soil conditions restricted fall fieldwork, including fertilizer N applications. In 2010, we observed unusually low flow-weighted nitrate concentrations (appro...

We studied the heterogeneity of soil weed seed-bank in a rice-wheat rotation system after long-term application of different organic or non-organic fertilizers, and the effects of major nutrients on the characteristics of the weed seed-bank. The soil was sampled in the Taihu area after a 31-year long-term fertilization experiment. Weed seeds were identified and counted in the surface soil of 12...

In connection with a study at the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory on the possible transformation products of cyanamid, there was obtained a number of materials and mixtures concerning which there is either very little known, or concerning which there is still some doubt as to their fertilizing value. Thus, in the preparation of urephos, a product was obtained in which approximately 55 per ce...

C admium (Cd) is a nonessential heavy metal that can cause kidney problems. Diet is the main source of Cd for nonsmokers, with cereal products, including pasta, accounting for up to 20% of the daily intake of Cd. The current official standard for maximum level of Cd in durum wheat grain as stated by the Codex Alimentarius Commission is 0.2 ppm. The European Union has adopted this level as the m...

River export of nitrogen (N) is influenced strongly by spatial variation in anthropogenic N inputs and climatic variation. We developed a model of riverine N export for 18 Lake Michigan Basin watersheds based on N budgets at 5-year intervals from 1974 to 1992. N inputs explained a high proportion of the spatial variation in river export but virtually none of the temporal variation, whereas betw...

Bush bean, long bean, mung bean, and winged bean plants were grown with N fertilizer at rates of 0, 2, 4, and 6 g N m(-2) preceding rice planting. Concurrently, rice was grown with N fertilizer at rates of 0, 4, 8, and 12 g N m(-2). No chemical fertilizer was used in the 2nd year of crop to estimate the nitrogen agronomic efficiency (NAE), nitrogen recovery efficiency (NRE), N uptake, and rice ...

Rhizobia form symbiotic nitrogen-fixing nodules on leguminous plants, which provides an important source of fixed nitrogen input into the soil ecosystem. The improvement of symbiotic nitrogen fixation is one of the main challenges facing agriculture research. Doing so will reduce the usage of chemical nitrogen fertilizer, contributing to the development of sustainable agriculture practices to d...

Computer models have been widely used to evaluate the impact of agronomic management on nitrogen (N) dynamics in subsurface drained fields. However, they have not been evaluated as to their ability to capture the variability of nitrate-nitrogen (NO(3)-N) concentration in subsurface drainage at a wide range of N application rates due to possible errors in the simulation of other system component...

Our researches have been made on brown forest soil that had been used in long-term experiments set up according to specified fertilization system for over 30 years. We have chosen those experiment variants in which quantities of nitrogen fertilizers were gradually increased. The soil samples taken from 0 cm to 30 cm depth were used to determine biological indexes of nitrogen availability (aerob...