Cross effects of urease and nitrification inhibitors in mineral fertilization between the nitrogen, carbon and water cycle

Efficient nitrogen use in agricultural crops is vital for promoting sustainable, profitable agriculture and has significant implications for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation. While urease (UI) and nitrification inhibitors (NI) are known to influence nitrogen (N) transformations, soil N availability, and utilization efficiency in ammonium sulfate urea (AS-HS), their impacts on the carbon (C) and water cycles are less understood. To address this knowledge gap and examine potential cross-effects among nitrogen, carbon, and water, we conducted an on-farm field trial with winter wheat in northeastern Germany, comparing non-fertilized, AS-HS, AS-HS+UI, and AS-HS+UI+NI treatments. Our findings indicate that inhibitors reduced N₂O emissions by 34.1-48.8 %. Agronomical nitrogen use efficiency (ANUE) decreased slightly with UI (1.4 %) but increased with UI+NI (4.4 %) relative to AS-HS alone. In addition to this expected effect on the N cycle, the use of UI and NI also influenced the C and water cycle by not only increasing C use efficiency (CUE) but also agronomical water use efficiency (AWUE) compared to AS-HS alone. At the same time, biomass production remained similar (UI) or even increased (UI+NI) when inhibitors were used and especially the double inhibitor treatment UI+NI seemed to effectively reduce overall global warming potential (GWP). In summary, our study underscores the complex interactions among nitrogen, carbon, and water dynamics, highlighting both the environmental impact and potential benefits of using urease (UI) and nitrification inhibitors (NI). This table contains the Index of the data collection.

Related datasets are listed in the metadata element 'Related Identifier'.
Dataset version 1.0

农作物高效氮肥利用对推动可持续、高收益农业发展至关重要，同时对温室气体（Greenhouse Gas, GHG）减排具有重要意义。尽管脲酶（Urease, UI）与硝化抑制剂（Nitrification Inhibitors, NI）已被证实可影响硫酸铵尿素（Ammonium Sulfate Urea, AS-HS）体系中的氮素（Nitrogen, N）转化、土壤氮素有效性及氮利用效率，但二者对碳（Carbon, C）与水循环的影响尚不明晰。
为填补这一研究空白并探究氮、碳、水循环之间的潜在交互效应，我们在德国东北部开展了冬小麦大田田间试验，设置了不施肥处理、AS-HS、AS-HS+UI以及AS-HS+UI+NI四组处理进行对比。
研究结果显示，抑制剂可使氧化亚氮（N₂O）排放量降低34.1%~48.8%。相较于单独施用AS-HS的处理，单独添加UI的农田氮素利用效率（Agronomical Nitrogen Use Efficiency, ANUE）小幅下降1.4%，而UI+NI联合添加处理的ANUE则提升4.4%。
除上述对氮循环的预期影响外，与单独施用AS-HS相比，UI与NI的配施还可通过提升碳利用效率（Carbon Use Efficiency, CUE）与农田水分利用效率（Agronomical Water Use Efficiency, AWUE），进而对碳循环与水循环产生调控作用。
与此同时，添加抑制剂的处理的生物量产量与对照组基本持平（单独添加UI组），甚至有所提升（UI+NI联合处理组）；其中双抑制剂配施处理UI+NI可有效降低整体全球变暖潜能（Global Warming Potential, GWP）。
综上，本研究揭示了氮、碳、水动态过程之间的复杂交互作用，同时凸显了脲酶抑制剂与硝化抑制剂的环境效应与应用潜力。
本表格包含数据采集索引。相关数据集已在元数据元素'Related Identifier'中列明。数据集版本为1.0