Nitrogen Transfer to Forage Crops from a Caragana Shelterbelt

Forests

Gazali Issah²  Anthony A. Kimaro¹  John Kort³  J. Diane Knight⁴ 

[1] World Agroforestry Centre, ICRAF-Tanzania Programme, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania; E-Mail:;Western Applied Research Corporation (WARC), P.O. Box 89 Scott, SK S0K 4A0, Canada; E-Mail:;Agroforestry Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (retired), P.O. Box 940, Indian Head, SK S0G 2K0, Canada; E-Mail:;Department of Soil Science, University of Saskatchewan, 51 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A8, Canada

关键词: agroforestry;    oat;    triticale;    ¹⁵N isotope dilution;    Saskatchewan;   

DOI  :  10.3390/f6061922

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Caragana shelterbelts are a common feature of farms in the Northern Great Plains of North America. We investigated if nitrogen (N) from this leguminous shrub contributed to the N nutrition of triticale and oat forage crops growing adjacent to the shelterbelt row. Nitrogen transfer was measured using ¹⁵N isotope dilution at distances of 2 m, 4 m, 6 m, 15 m and 20 m from the shelterbelt. At 2 m caragana negatively impacted the growth of triticale and oat. At 4 m from the shelterbelt productivity was maximum for both forage crops and corresponded to the highest amount of N originating from caragana. The amount of N transferred from caragana decreased linearly with distance away from the shelterbelt, but even at 20 m from the shelterbelt row measureable amounts of N originating from caragana were detectable in the forage biomass. At 4 m from the shelterbelt approximately 40% of the N in both oat and triticale was from caragana, and at 20 m from the shelterbelt approximately 20% of the N in oat and 8% of the N in triticale was from caragana.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.