No‐tillage increases nitrogen scavenging by fallow weeds in a double‐season rice cropping system in China |
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| Authors: | Min Huang Peng Jiang Xuefeng Zhou Yingbin Zou |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Sothern Regional Collaborative Innovation Center for Grain and Oil Crops (CICGO), Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China;2. Institute of Rice and Sorghum, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Luzhou, China |
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| Abstract: | Naturally occurring fallow weeds are an alternative strategy for reducing nitrogen (N) loss from annual cropping systems by scavenging inorganic N from the soil. Soil tillage is a major factor affecting the growth of weed populations. This study was carried out to determine the effect of a no‐tillage (NT) system on the N scavenging capacity of fallow weeds in a double‐season rice cropping system. A fixed field experiment was carried out at the Experimental Farm of Hunan Agricultural University, Hunan Province, China, from 2008 to 2011. The results indicated that NT had 80% greater aboveground biomass of fallow weeds than conventional tillage (CT). There was no significant difference in N concentration in fallow weeds between NT and CT. N uptake by fallow weeds was 82% higher under NT than under CT. The stem density of fallow weeds was 50% higher under NT than under CT. The difference in the single‐stem biomass of fallow weeds was not significant between NT and CT. These results suggest that the N scavenging capacity of fallow weeds in the double‐rice cropping system can be increased by increasing the stem density and aboveground biomass through the adoption of NT farming. Our study identifies a potential new ecosystem service provided by NT farming. |
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| Keywords: | fallow season Japanese foxtail rice field soil tillage weed N uptake |
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