Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Soil Processes
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2024.1502902

Impact of Different Types of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Compound Fertilizers on Maize Yield and Drip Emitter Clogging using Secondary Sewage Effluent

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Shanxi Agricultural University, Jinzhong, China
  • 2 China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Phosphorus (P) is a key nutrient for crop growth and yield. The use of drip irrigation systems to apply phosphate fertilizer may enhance the migration distance and improve usage rates. However, emitter clogging poses a substantial challenge to phosphorus drip irrigation systems. This study evaluated the influences of phosphorus fertilizer type on soil available phosphorus, plant growth, yield, and drip emitter clogging. Experiments in both seasons were scheduled with phosphorus fertilizer, including urea phosphate (UP, F1), monoammonium phosphate (MAP, F2), and combined urea phosphate and monoammonium phosphate (UP+MAP, F3). A treatment without phosphate fertigation (F0) was used as the control. Applying phosphorus fertilizer enhanced soil−available P content, grew taller with greater leaf area index than those without P fertilizer. This promoted photosynthesis and increased dry matter mass, plant P and N uptake, and aboveground plant biomass. The maximum yield of 14764.2 and 14778.2 kg ha−1 was obtained under urea phosphate (F1) and monoammonium phosphate (F2) in the 2022 and 2023 seasons, respectively. Phosphorus fertilization changes the composition and diversity of bacterial and fungal communities in the emitter biofilm. Urea phosphate and monoammonium phosphate increased the abundance of Proteobacteria and decreased the abundance of Acidobacteriota. Acidobacteriota was strongly positively correlated with extracellular protein, whereas Proteobacteria was negatively correlated with extracellular polysaccharide, extracellular protein, and extracellular polymer. The content of extracellular polymer and solid particles decreased by 30.1–42.0% and 39.8–79.7%, respectively, inducing a higher relative emitter discharge for the treatment with phosphorus fertilizer. Acidic phosphorus fertilizer, such as urea phosphorus and monoammonium phosphate, can maintain the high performance of drip irrigation and produce high crop yield.

    Keywords: Bacterial and fungal community, drip irrigation, Phosphorus fertilizer, Soil available phosphorus, yield

    Received: 27 Sep 2024; Accepted: 11 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Hao, Liu, Zhen and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Zhilei Zhen, Shanxi Agricultural University, Jinzhong, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.