Increasing nitrogen use efficiency by new designed cropping systems in an intensive agricultural region of China

15Nitrogen (N) tracer experiment in an intensive agricultural region of China (North China Plain) was conducted to investigate the grain yields, fertilizer N use efficiency (FNUE) and the fate of fertilizer N in the new designed cropping systems as compared with the conventional winter wheat-summer maize cropping system. We found that winter wheatsummer maize-spring maize and winter wheat-summer soybean-spring maize together with optimized N, water, straw and tillage management will deliver significant improvements in the environmental footprints and sustainability of intensively managed cropping systems in the North China Plain.

The North China Plain (NCP) is the most productive cropland region in China. However, overuse of nitrogen (N) fertilizers and overexploitation of groundwater for irrigation have caused environmental degradation in the region. The objective of the present study was to investigate the grain yields, fertilizer N use efficiency (FNUE) and fate of applied fertilizer N in the new designed cropping systems as compared with the conventional winter wheat-summer maize cropping system.