Soil nitrogen mineralization as predictor of sugarcane N fertilizer requirements

• Grant number: 11/14372-1
• Support Opportunities: Program for Research on Bioenergy (BIOEN) - Regular Program Grants
• Start date: November 01, 2011
• End date: October 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Soil Science
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Cesar Ocheuze Trivelin
• Grantee: Paulo Cesar Ocheuze Trivelin
• Host Institution: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• City of the host institution: Piracicaba
• Associated researchers: André Cesar Vitti ; Heitor Cantarella ; Henrique Coutinho Junqueira Franco ; José Albertino Bendassolli

Abstract

Quantifying soil N mineralization is essential since soil organic matter is the main source of N to plants. Identifying highly responsible, moderately responsible and non-responsible sites to N fertilization, by means of soil N tests, allows develop a site-specifically N recommendation system in sugarcane, increasing the agroecosystems sustainability. This study aims to develop indexes of soil N mineralization as an alternative to the actual N fertilizer recommendation system of sugarcane, to meeting agronomic and environmental challenges related to N fertilizer usage. At least 15 N-response trials of sugarcane ratoons carried out under field conditions between 2006 and 2012 will be selected. In these trials, soil samples will be collected to evaluate several methods of soil N availability to plants, including biological (aerobic and anaerobic incubation), chemicals (acidified KMnO4, alkaline KMnO4, hot KCl 2 mol L-1, phosphate-borate buffer at pH 11.2, NaHCO3 extractable - 260 nm, organic N fractionation, Illinois Soil Nitrogen Test, direct steam distillation) and microbiological (gross mineralization, microbial biomass C and basal respiration). The soil tests results will be correlated with the relative response to N fertilization obtained in the field trials, in terms of stalk and sugar yield as well as N uptake. Is expected that results obtained allows address the knowledge gap about process of N transformation in soil and sugarcane response to N fertilization, in order to improve the crop fertilization and preserve sugarcane as a sustainable option for renewable fuels production. This research project is part of the BIOEN-FAPESP Thematic Project (Process 2008/56147-1), coordinated by Ph.D. Heitor Cantarella, scientific researcher at IAC. (AU)

Scientific publications

(The scientific publications listed on this page originate from the Web of Science or SciELO databases. Their authors have cited FAPESP grant or fellowship project numbers awarded to Principal Investigators or Fellowship Recipients, whether or not they are among the authors. This information is collected automatically and retrieved directly from those bibliometric databases.)

MARIANO, EDUARDO; OTTO, RAFAEL; MONTEZANO, ZAQUEU F.; CANTARELLA, HEITOR; TRIVELIN, PAULO C. O.. Soil nitrogen availability indices as predictors of sugarcane nitrogen requirements. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF AGRONOMY, v. 89, p. 25-37, SEP 2017. (11/14372-1, 11/07955-0, 08/56147-1, 02/10534-8)