| In-season, site-specific (SS) N management based on remote sensing (RS) has been suggested as a way of reducing groundwater NO3-N contamination. In-season N management seeks to match the temporal variability of crop N needs by applying appropriate amounts of N at critical crop growth stages. Site-specific N management attempts to match the spatial variability of crop N requirements by applying appropriate, spatially variable N rates within fields. We evaluated the environmental and agronomic benefits of two in-season, RS-informed N management strategies applied on a uniform field-average (FA) or SS basis. We compared these to current uniform N recommendations based on "Realistic Yield Expectations" (RYE) in a typical coastal plain cropping system. We also sought to understand the spatial and temporal dynamics of shallow groundwater NO3-N. An additional objective was to develop a statistical procedure for the analysis of spatially dense, georeferenced subsample data in randomized complete block designs, a common characteristic of precision agriculture research. Elevations, soil organic matter (SOM), and water table elevations (WTE) were spatial covariates used for explaining NO3-N spatial correlation. Compared to RYE, SS achieved: (i) less groundwater NO3-N by reducing fertilizer N and increasing the harvest N ratio (the ratio of N harvested in grain or forage to the total fertilizer N applied) for wheat in 2001; (ii) increased yield associated with higher N applied and decreased harvest N ratio for corn in 2002; and (iii) increased yield associated with similar fertilizer N and increased harvest N ratio for wheat in 2003. Overall, FA performed similarly to SS for wheat, but differed greatly for corn due to an overapplication of N at tasselling. Our data suggest that to assess the environmental efficacy of N management, frequent and periodic monitoring of groundwater NO3 -N, especially after significant rainfall, is essential to capture in-season treatment effects. Simultaneous measurement of precipitation and water table depth facilitate understanding of these effects. The traditional sampling of NO3-N only at or after harvest is likely to be insufficient to capture the entirety of treatment effects throughout the growing season. This is especially true in coastal plain and other coarse-textured soils where in-season NO3-N leaching may be pronounced. Our data also suggest that residual effects of differential N management may appear long after N application, even on these coarse-textured soils, indicating a need for longitudinal sampling. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
