Modeling long-term effects of hairy vetch cultivation on cotton production in Northwest Louisiana.

The use of hairy vetch as a winter cover crop for cotton production in Northwest Louisiana has contributed to sustaining cotton production as well as improving soil quality. To test the efficacy of hairy vetch (HV) cultivation as a natural N supplement for cotton production, a long-term field experiment lasting 27years was evaluated using the Denitrification-Decomposition (DNDC) model. Different N fertilization practices, including 0kgNha-1 (PL_1), HV alone (PL_2), 44.8kgNha-1 (PL_3), and 67.3kgNha-1 (PL_4), were compared to evaluate nitrogen (N) response to cotton yield. Measured crop yield from each treatment was used to calibrate and validate the model. The DNDC model was employed to test the effects of N application scenarios on cotton yields and HV incorporation on N balance under irrigated and non-irrigated conditions. In model calibration, statistical indices for the model performance on cotton seed yield showed that PL_1 had a normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) value of 24.5%, a model efficiency (ME) value of 0.51, and a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.87 (P<0.01). The DNDC model was validated with PL_2, PL_3, and PL_4. PL_2, PL_3 and PL_4 had a NRMSE of 18.6%, 16.4% and 15.8% respectively, ME value of 0.19, 0.47 and 0.52 respectively, and an r of 0.75, 0.83 and 0.85 (P<0.05) respectively. Estimates of soil organic carbon (SOC) for HV treatment showed double the SOC content during a 27-year long-term experiment, while both treatments of 44.8kgNha-1 and 67.3kgNha-1 showed similar levels of SOC of a 25% increase compared to the control. Based on the scenario analysis, sustainable cotton yields do not require N fertilizer application under HV cultivated fields, and no yield differences were observed between irrigated and non-irrigated conditions.

Evaluation of fertilizer and water management effect on rice performance and greenhouse gas intensity in different seasonal weather of tropical climate.

Intensively double cropping rice increases greenhouse gas (GHG) emission in tropical countries, and hence, finding better management practices is imperative for reducing global warming potential (GWP), while sustaining rice yield. This study demonstrated an efficient fertilizer and water management practice targeting seasonal weather conditions effects on rice productivity, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), GWP, and GHG intensity (GHGI). Two-season experiments were conducted with two pot-scale experiments using urea and urea+cattle manure (CM) under continuous flooding (CF) during the wet season (2013WS), and urea with/without CaSiO3 application under alternate wetting and drying (AWD) during the dry season (2014DS). In 2013WS, 120kgNha-1 of urea fertilizer resulted in lower CH4 emission and similar rice production compared to urea+CM. In 2014DS, CaSiO3 application showed no difference in yields and led to significant reduction of N2O emission, but increased CH4 emission and GWP. Due to significant increases in GHG emissions in urea+CM and CaSiO3 application, we compared a seasonal difference in a local rice cultivation to test two water management practices. CF was adopted during 2013WS while AWD was adopted during 2014DS. Greater grain yields and yield components and NUE were obtained in 2014DS than in 2013WS. Furthermore, higher grain yields contributed to similar values of GHGI although GWP of cumulative GHG emissions was increased in 2014DS. Thus, utilizing urea only application under AWD is a preferred practice to minimize GWP without yield decline for double cropping rice in tropical countries.