Assessing the Fates of Water and Nitrogen on an Open-Field Intensive Vegetable System under an Expert-N System with EU-Rotate_N Model in North China Plain

Abstract

Nitrate leaching, greenhouse gas emissions, and water loss are caused by conventional water and fertilizer management in vegetable fields. The Expert-N system is a useful tool for recommending the optimal nitrogen (N) fertilizer for vegetable cultivation. To clarify the fates of water and N in vegetable fields, an open-field vegetable cultivation experiment was conducted in Dongbeiwang, Beijing. This experiment tested two irrigation treatments (W1: conventional and W2: optimal) and three fertilizer treatments (N1: conventional, N2: optimal N rate by Expert-N system, and N3: 80% optimal N rate) on cauliflower (Brassica oleracea L.), amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor L.), and spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.). The EU-Rotate_N model was used to simulate the fates of water and N in the soil. The results indicated that the yields of amaranth and spinach showed no significant differences among all the treatments in 2000 and 2001. However, cauliflower yield under the W1N2 and W1N3 treatments obviously reduced in 2001. Compared with the W1 treatment, W2 reduced irrigation amount by 27.9–29.8%, water drainage by over 76%, increased water use efficiency by 5–17%, and irrigation water use efficiency by 29–45%. Nitrate leaching was one of the main pathways in this study, accounting for 8.4% of the total N input; compared to N1, the input of fertilizer N under the N2 and N3 treatments decreased by over 66.5%, consequently reducing gaseous N by 48–72% and increasing nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) by 17–37%. Additionally, compared with the W1 treatments, gaseous N loss under the W2 treatments was reduced by 18–26% and annual average NUEs increased by 22–29%. The highest annual average NUEs were under W2N3 (169.6 kg kg−1) in 2000 and W2N2 (188.0 kg kg−1) in 2001, respectively. We found that optimizing fertilizer management allowed subsequent crops to utilize residual N in the soil. Therefore, we suggest that the W2N3 management should be recommended to farmers to reduce water and N loss in vegetable production systems.