ARS | Publication request: Excess N in Soil-Crop Systems: Assessment and Integration with N Recommendations

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: November 1, 2006
Publication Date: December 10, 2006
Citation: Huggins, D.R., D.B. Beegle, K. Bronson, A.D. Halvorson, J.J. Meisinger, J.S. Schepers. 2006. Excess N in Soil-Crop Systems: Assessment and Integration with N Recommendations. In Annual meetings abstracts [CD-ROM]. ASA, CSSA, and SSSA, Madison, WI.

Technical Abstract: Nitrogen management has traditionally focused on evaluating crop N requirements using N response and sufficiency criteria. Although target N use efficiencies are implicit in many of these approaches, measures of inefficient N use including surplus N and N losses are often not explicitly utilized in N management recommendations. Excess N can be defined as available soil N that exceeds current crop requirements and has a high risk of loss to environmentally adverse pathways during the course of a defined crop sequence or rotation. Assessment of N surpluses and losses has been the focus of recent studies including both direct and indirect measures of soil properties, crop characteristics and crop performance (i.e. N recovery, N inputs versus outputs). Our objectives are to review current methods of assessing excess N and N losses in cropping systems and to explore their application in formulating N recommendations and evaluating N management practices.