Increasing nutrient delivery efficiency -
Farmers face the challenge of increasing production without destroying the soil. Traditional ag has increased food production dramatically, but that productivity has come at a big environmental cost. Plant needs, weather, and soil type all determine how much of the fertilizer applied is taken up by the crop.
Fertilizer runoff is a serious water pollution problem in the US, causing algal blooms in surface water bodies downstream of farm fields. The rise of precision farming is an answer to the runoff challenge. The use of organic soil amendments, cover crops, riparian strips, and no-till help mitigate fertilizer run-off.
They do buffer water bodies by capturing nutrients in hedgerows. Cover crops, when rolled down for termination, keep the nutrients in the field for cash crop uptake. You can stand out in the rain with your mouth open and get a drink, or you can get a glass and set it out in the rain. Diffusion is like standing out in the rain.
You do get raindrops in your mouth, but you also get soaking-wet clothes. Fertilizer ions that enter plant cells through diffusion and not endocytosis through nanotechnology take time and many ions are blown or washed away from the application site. You end up with fertilizer ions causing eutrophication in nearby water bodies — like the unwanted outcome of soaking-wet clothes.
Diffusion is passive but is considered a type of thermal motion process. It works best with non-charged particles like oxygen moving out of the cell and carbon dioxide moving into the cell. Charged particles can move through ion channels or with the aid of certain membrane proteins.
But individual ions take a long time to filter through the cell membrane. But nutrient Ions move from a high concentration area to a low concentration area, concentration gradients.
Ion channels come in several different forms but they all move nutrient ions along concentration gradients similar to simple diffusion. Because nutrient uptake by plants by diffusion takes time the nutrients sit on the cell surface and are subject to oxidative stress, microbial degradation, and erosion.
Endocytosis is active. A plant has to exert energy to encapsulate the nutrient particles. They get the needed nutrients into the plant structure when they need them. Active transport requires a plant to produce energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate ATP. Plants are constantly producing ATP and pulling needed nutrients and water into the cell structure with the ATP pump.
There are three kinds of endocytosis: pinocytosis, phagocytosis, and receptor-mediated. They all have a number of common steps for transporting nutrients or bacteria from outside the cell to the inside.
The cell first has to be activated, and alerted, that there is something at the nanoscale that it needs to address. Then it goes through chemotaxis, the cell receives chemical signals that it needs to move in the direction of the nanoparticle. The particle size determines which endocytotic process is activated.
All types of endocytosis include an engulfing of the nanoparticle on the cell surface and bringing it into the cell, either to destroy it or to use it for nutrition. Plants have many specialized organelles small organs that need plant food which is provided through phagocytosis.
Receptor-mediated endocytosis is a specialized mechanism for bringing specific nutrients into a plant structure. This type of endocytosis allows cells to take up rare molecules from the extracellular fluid.
The generalist processes of phagocytosis and pinocytosis are happening all around us all the time. The cell engulfs the bacteria and encloses it in a plasma membrane. These large particles need to be digested hence cell eating and the sac, or vacuole is moved by the plant to a lysosome cell that secretes enzymes to digest the particle.
the amount of grain you removed. So if you applied pounds of nitrogen per acre and your corn yielded bushels, your nitrogen efficiency is But that gives you a post-mortem review. The best thing you can do to manage your nutrient use efficiencies as a whole, is to start with the way you soil sample.
Ideally, you want to soil sample from the smallest unit of farm ground that you can manage from a nutrient basis. So for instance, soil sampling from a 5-acre zone instead of 50 acres.
The higher the resolution you can get in your soil sampling program, the better. From there, we can make an accurate assessment of what our yield goals should be. There are two ways to improve NUE.
Either reduce your input and hope your output stays the same. Or keep your inputs the same and find ways to increase your output. The truth is there is no one factor that will improve NUE.
Instead, every decision we make in the cropping year impacts it — herbicides, tillage, irrigation, fungicides, planting dates, population — the list goes on. All of these impact nutrient management long before we apply nutrients. Just focus on making the best agronomic decision for every situation on your farm.
But the hybrids that are consistently in the top five for your geography likely will. So then you talk to your seed agronomist and you ask, how do they perform under different nitrogen situations? Do they perform differently if you make a fungicide application?
Because these things all feed into how we make nutrient decisions. So start by making the best agronomic decisions.
I recommend picking one nutrient at a time to try to improve, which for most growers will be nitrogen. Now we start to look at how we can manage that nutrient for better efficiency. With nitrogen, it could be adding a nitrogen stabilizer or changing the application timing.
Consider implementing a change based on the 4Rs fertilizer framework: applying the right nutrient source at the right rate, at the right time, and in the right place. According to Tom Bruulsema of the International Plant Nutrition Institute IPNI , growers can increase NUE significantly by synchronizing nutrient availability with crop demand, which could be achieved with split applications, slow and controlled-release fertilizers, stabilizers and inhibitors.
The important thing is to pick one practice, product, or technology, and test it. And keep going. We have to look at this in a decade-long timeframe. Key research questions we are exploring include:.
Nutrient Use. Agricultural Sustainability Institute Programs Research Nutrient Use. Key research questions we are exploring include: How can food production systems be designed to reduce dependence on fossil-fuel-based sources of nitrogen?
We explore how incorporating cover crops, compost, and other sources of fertility affect soil health and crop yields. What is the best mix of intensification and extensification to deliver better production, greenhouse gas emissions, and increase ecosystem services?
Increaaing article has been reviewed Increasing nutrient delivery efficiency Healthy appetite control Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring nutrien content's credibility:. by Zhao Weiwei, Increasing nutrient delivery efficiency Wenchao, Chinese Academy of Effiicency. A team led by Nutriet. Wang Guozhong and Increasing nutrient delivery efficiency Hongjian from the Institute of Solid State Physics ISSPHefei Institutes of Physical Science HFIPS of the Chinese Academy of Sciences CAS has successfully utilized surface roughness engineering of silicon-based nanomaterials to achieve efficient delivery of essential nutrients to crop leaves. Their findings, published in ACS Nanoreveal a new strategy for maximizing nutrient absorption in crops. Conventional soil fertilization involves applying nutrients to the soil, whereas foliar fertilization allows nutrients to be sprayed directly onto crop leaf surfaces. Citrus aurantium extracts for sports performance now we all understand the Increasing nutrient delivery efficiency Rs of nutrient stewardship, but growers ddelivery times overlook critical aspects of this nutreint pronged approach to maximize Increasing nutrient delivery efficiency use efficiency when they Increaslng applying Nutrienf fertilizers. Most phosphorus fertilizer applied is as broadcast dry fertilizer. In much of the US, those applications are made in the fall. This is primarily for convenience to ensure earlier planting opportunities in the corn belt. Phosphorus is highly reactive in soil environments and can quickly become unavailable to a quickly developing crop. While convenient, fall applications are inefficient, since the applied fertilizer is in contact with soil long before the crop is planted. This allows for phosphorus and other nutrition to become fixed.
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