[Physiological responses of cotton plant to fertlizer nitrogen at flowering and boll-forming stages under soil drought].

ABSTRACT

With pot culture, the physiological responses of cotton plant to fertilizer nitrogen at flowering and boll-forming stages were studied under soil drought and after re-watering. The results showed that under soil drought, the net photosynthetic rate (Pn) and transpiration rate (Tr) declined rapidly with decreasing soil relative water content (SRWC). At the early stage of soil drought, owing to the declining degree of Tr was greater than that of Pn, the WUE had an increasing trend; but after then, the WUE decreased with declining SRWC and Pn. Soil drought altered the diurnal patters of Pn and Tr, i.e., decreased continuously from 800 to 1600, while in CK, their peak values appeared at 1000-1100 and 1200, respectively. The diurnal patterns of WUE in drought treatment and CK were the same, i.e., decreased first and increased then, with the bottom appeared at 1200. Under soil drought, the Pn and Tr decreased with increasing fertilizer nitrogen level, while WUE was in adverse. After re-watering, the diurnal patterns of Pn, Tr and WUE were similar to CK, but their values were smaller than CK, especially under nitrogen application. It was suggested that under soil drought, nitrogen fertilization could be helpful to the increase of water use efficiency, but decreased the photosynthesis of cotton plant at its flowering and boll-forming stages.