Field measurements of water and nitrogen losses under irrigated maize (original) (raw)

1994, Journal of Hydrology

An intensive multidisciplinary experiment has been conducted over several years at La C6te Saint-Andr6, near Grenoble, France. The major objective is to determine an optimal fertilizer application scheme for an irrigated agricultural system. Such a scheme would not degrade the quality of the environment, and yet would maintain a profitable level of crop production. This study is explicitly related to the cultivation of irrigated maize, a major crop in the area. The various terms of the water balance (consumption, drainage, soil storage) and of the nitrogen cycle (mineralization, plant uptake, leaching) were obtained from intensive monitoring in the upper layer of the 0.8 m of soil which corresponds to the root zone of the crop. This entailed the combined use of a neutron moisture meter, tensiometers and soil suction cups. To determine the specific effects of fertilization and crop growth, there were different treatments. These corresponded to a traditional fertilizer application of 260 kg N ha -1, no fertilization, and bare soil. carried out within an area of approximately 2 ha. Several sites were instrumented on each treatment, one of them being specifically for the application and the monitoring of 15N-tagged fertilizer.

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