Interplay between nitrogen fertilizer and biological nitrogen fixation in soybean: implications on seed yield and biomass allocation.

ABSTRACT: Legumes rely on soil mineral nitrogen (N) and biological N fixation (BNF). The interplay between these two sources is biologically interesting and agronomically relevant as the crop can accommodate the cost of BNF by five non-mutually exclusive mechanisms, whereby BNF: reduces shoot growth and seed yield, or maintains shoot growth and seed yield by enhanced photosynthesis, or reduced root:shoot ratio, or maintains shoot growth but reduces seed yield by reducing the fraction of shoot biomass allocated to seed (harvest index), or reducing concentration of oil and protein in seed. We explore the impact of N application on the seasonal dynamics of BNF, and its consequences for seed yield with emphasis on growth and shoot allocation mechanisms. Trials were established in 23 locations across the

SUBMITTER: Tamagno S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6269449 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature