Resin-coated urea effectively simulates the chronic dynamics of natural nitrogen deposition

Here, we designed 9 resin-coated urea fertilizers with three fertilizer particle sizes and three thicknesses of the coating with the goal of identifying the combination that would release N continuously throughout a year in a semiarid area. Then, we measured the rate of N deposition in a semi-arid system, the release rate of the coated urea,and the precipitation and tested whether the release of the coated urea provided an effective proxy for the temporal dynamics of natural N deposition.