Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T09:30:19.028Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

EFFECTS OF NH4+–N/NO3−–N RATIOS ON PHOTOSYNTHETIC CHARACTERISTICS, DRY MATTER YIELD AND NITRATE CONCENTRATION OF SPINACH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2014

SUZHI XING ,
JIANFEI WANG ,
YI ZHOU ,
SEAN A. BLOSZIES ,
CONG TU  and
SHUIJIN HU
SUZHI XING
Affiliation:
College of Urban Construction & Environmental Sciences, Anhui Science and Technological University, Fengyang, Anhui 233100, P. R. China
JIANFEI WANG
Affiliation:
College of Urban Construction & Environmental Sciences, Anhui Science and Technological University, Fengyang, Anhui 233100, P. R. China
YI ZHOU
Affiliation:
College of Urban Construction & Environmental Sciences, Anhui Science and Technological University, Fengyang, Anhui 233100, P. R. China
SEAN A. BLOSZIES
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Soil Ecology, Department of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7616, USA
CONG TU*
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Soil Ecology, Department of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7616, USA
SHUIJIN HU
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Soil Ecology, Department of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7616, USA
*
§Corresponding author. Email: cong_tu@ncsu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Most plants prefer nitrate (NO3−–N) to ammonium (NH4+–N). However, high NO3−–N in soil and water systems is a cause of concern for human health and the environment. Replacing NO3−–N in plant nutrition regimes with an appropriate amount of NH4+–N may alleviate these concerns. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of different NH4+–N/NO3−–N ratios on chlorophyll content, stomatal conductance, Rubisco activity, net photosynthetic rate, dry matter yield and NO3−–N accumulation in spinach grown hydroponically. The NH4+–N/NO3−–N percentage ratios were 0:100 (control), 25:75, 50:50, 75:25 and 100:0. Chlorophyll a and b, total chlorophyll, stomatal conductance, initial activity and activation state of Rubisco and net photosynthetic rate in spinach leaves were all reduced by increased NH4+–N/NO3−–N ratios. Significant correlation existed between these measurements. However, no statistical differences in dry matter yield were revealed between the 0:100 and 25:75 treatments. Leaf nitrate concentrations were reduced by 38% at the 25:75 treatment relative to the 0:100 treatment. These findings suggest that lowering the relative proportion of NO3−–N in fertilizer could effectively reduce NO3−–N contents in leafy vegetables without decreasing their yields.

Type
Research Article
Information
Experimental Agriculture , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 151 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Arnon, D. I. (1949). Copper enzymes in isolated chloroplasts – polyphenoloxidase in Beta-vulgaris . Plant Physiology 24:1–15.Google Scholar
Azarmi, R. and Esmaeilpour, B. (2010). Effect of NO3 − to NH4 + ratio on growth, yield and element composition of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.). Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment 8:607–610.Google Scholar
Barker, A. V., Volk, R. J. and Jackson, W. A. (1965). Effects of ammonium and nitrate nutrition on dark respiration of excised bean leaves. Crop Science 5:439–444.Google Scholar
Bloom, A. J., Sukrapanna, S. S. and Warner, R. L. (1992). Root respiration associated with ammonium and nitrate absorption and assimilation by barley. Plant Physiology 99:1294–1301.Google Scholar
Britto, D. T. and Kronzucker, H. J. (2002). NH4 + toxicity in higher plants: a critical review. Journal of Plant Physiology 159:567–584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Britto, D. T., Siddiqi, M. Y., Glass, A. D. M. and Kronzucker, H. J. (2001). Futile transmembrane NH4 + cycling: a cellular hypothesis to explain ammonium toxicity in plants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 98:4255–4258.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burow, K. R., Nolan, B. T., Rupert, M. G. and Dubrovsky, N. M. (2010). Nitrate in groundwater of the United States, 1991–2003. Environmental Science and Technology 44:4988–4997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cechin, I. and de Fátima Fumis, T. (2004). Effect of nitrogen supply on growth and photosynthesis of sunflower plants grown in the greenhouse. Plant Science 166:1379–1385.Google Scholar
Chan, T. Y. K. (2011). Vegetable-borne nitrate and nitrite and the risk of methaemoglobinaemia. Toxicology Letters 200:107–108.Google Scholar
Chen, L., Liu, S. C., Gai, J. Y., Zhu, Y. L., Yang, L. F. and Wei, G. P. (2009). Effects of nitrogen forms on the growth, ascorbate-glutathione cycle and lipid peroxidation in developing seeds of vegetable soybean. African Journal of Agricultural Research 4:1178–1188.Google Scholar
Cheng, L. L. and Fuchigami, L. H. (2000). Rubisco activation state decreases with increasing nitrogen content in apple leaves. Journal of Experimental Botany 51:1687–1694.Google Scholar
Claussen, W. (2002). Growth, water use efficiency, and proline content of hydroponically grown tomato plants as affected by nitrogen source and nutrient concentration. Plant and Soil 2:199–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Claussen, W. and Lenz, F. (1999). Effect of ammonium or nitrate nutrition on net photosynthesis, growth, and activity of the enzymes nitrate reductase and glutamine synthetase in blueberry, raspberry and strawberry. Plant and Soil 208:95–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di, H. J., Cameron, K. C., Shen, J. P., Winefield, C. S., O’Callaghan, M., Bowatte, S. and He, J. Z. (2009). Nitrification driven by bacteria and not archaea in nitrogen-rich grassland soils. Nature Geoscience 2:621–624.Google Scholar
Evans, J. R. (1989). Photosynthesis and nitrogen relationships in leaves of C3 plants. Oecologia 78:9–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, J. R. and Seemann, J. R. (1989). The allocation of protein nitrogen in the photosynthetic apparatus: cost, consequences and control. In Photosynthesis, 183–205 (Ed Briggs, W. R.). New York, NY: Alan R. Liss.Google Scholar
Gerendás, J., Zhu, Z., Bendixen, R., Ratcliffe, R. G. and Sattelmacher, B. (1997). Physiological and biochemical processes related to ammonium toxicity in higher plants. Zeitschrift Fur Pflanzenernahrung Und Bodenkunde 160:239–251.Google Scholar
Gollany, H. T., Molina, J.-A. E., Allmars, R. R., Layese, M. F., Baker, J. M. and Cheng, H. H. (2004). Nitrogen leaching and denitrification in continuous corn as related to residue management and nitrogen fertilization. Environmental Management 33:S289–S298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goulding, K. (2000). Nitrate leaching from arable and horticultural land. Soil Use and Management 16:145–151.Google Scholar
Guo, H. X., Liu, W. Q. and Shi, Y. C. (2006). Effects of different nitrogen forms on photosynthetic rate and the chlorophyll fluorescence induction kinetics of flue-cured tobacco. Photosynthetica 44:140–142.Google Scholar
Guo, F.-Q., Young, L. and Crawford, N. M. (2003). The nitrate transporter atNRT1.1 (CHL1) functions in stomatal opening and contributes to drought susceptibility in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell 15:107–117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guo, S., Zhou, Y., Shen, Q. and Zhang, F. (2007). Effect of ammonium and nitrate nutrition on some physiological processes in higher plants – growth, photosynthesis, photorespiration, and water relations. Plant Biology 9:21–29.Google Scholar
Hawkins, H.-J. and Lewis, O. A. M. (1993). Combination effect of NaCl salinity, nitrogen form and calcium concentration on the growth, ionic content and gaseous exchange properties of Triticum aestivum L. cv. Gamtoos. New Phytologist 124:161–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, W. G. and Hüner, N. P. A. (2009). Introduction to Plant Physiology, 4th edn. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Kotsiras, A., Olympios, C. M., Drosopoulos, J. and Passam, H. C. (2002). Effects of nitrogen form and concentration on the distribution of ions within cucumber fruits. Scientia Horticulturae 95:175–183.Google Scholar
Kumar, P. A., Parry, M. A. J., Mitchell, R. A. C., Ahmad, A. and Abrol, Y. P. (2002). Photosynthesis and nitrogen use-efficiency. In Photosynthetic Nitrogen Assimilation and Associated Carbon and Respiratory Metabolism, 23–34 (Eds Foyer, C. H. and Noctor, G.). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Lopes, M. S. and Araus, J. L. (2006). Nitrogen source and water regime effects on durum wheat photosynthesis and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope composition. Physiologia Plantarum 126:435–445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Makino, A. (2003). Rubisco and nitrogen relationships in rice: leaf photosynthesis and plant growth. Soil Science and Plant Nutrition 49:319–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Makino, A. and Osmond, B. (1991). Effects of nitrogen nutrition on nitrogen partitioning between chloroplasts and mitochondria in pea and wheat. Plant Physiology 96:355–362.Google Scholar
Marschner, H. (1995). Mineral Nutrition of Higher Plants, 2nd edn. London Academic Press.Google Scholar
Outlaw, W. H. Jr. (1983). Current concepts on the role of potassium in stomatal movements. Physiologia Plantarum 59:302–311.Google Scholar
Pasquini, S. C. and Santiago, L. S. (2012). Nutrients limit photosynthesis in seedlings of a lowland tropical forest tree species. Oecologia 168:311–319.Google Scholar
Peltier, G. and Thibault, P. (1983). Ammonia exchange and photo-respiration in chlamydomonas. Plant Physiology 71:888–892.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritchie, R. J. (2006). Consistent sets of spectrophotometric chlorophyll equations for acetone, methanol and ethanol solvents. Photosynthesis Research 89:27–41.Google Scholar
Santamaria, P. (2006). Nitrate in vegetables: toxicity, content, intake and EC regulation. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 86:10–17.Google Scholar
Tabatabaei, S. J., Fatemi, L. S. and Fallahi, E. (2006). Effect of ammonium: nitrate ratio on yield, calcium concentration, and photosynthesis rate in strawberry. Journal of Plant Nutrition 29:1273–1285.Google Scholar
Tabatabaei, S. J., Yusefi, M. and Hajiloo, J. (2008). Effects of shading and NO3:NH4 ratio on yield, quality and N metabolism in strawberry. Scientia Horticulturae 116:264–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toth, V. R., Meszaros, I., Veres, S. and Nagy, J. (2002). Effects of the available nitrogen on the photosynthetic activity and xanthophyll cycle pool of maize in field. Journal of Plant Physiology 159:627–634.Google Scholar
Umar, A. S. and Iqbal, M. (2007). Nitrate accumulation in plants, factors affecting the process, and human health implications. A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development 27:45–57.Google Scholar
Valentine, A. J., Osborne, B. A. and Mitchell, D. T. (2002). Form of inorganic nitrogen influences mycorrhizal colonisation and photosynthesis of cucumber. Scientia Horticulturae 92:229–239.Google Scholar
van Groenigen, J. W., Velthof, G. L., Oenema, O., van Groenigen, K. J. and van Kessel, C. (2010). Towards an agronomic assessment of N2O emissions: a case study for arable crops. European Journal of Soil Science 61:903–913.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walch-Liu, P., Neumann, G., Bangerth, F. and Engels, C. (2000). Rapid effects of nitrogen form on leaf morphogenesis in tobacco. Journal of Experimental Botany 51:227–237.Google Scholar
Wang, G. Y., Li, C. J. and Zhang, F. S. (2003). Effects of different nitrogen forms and combination with foliar spraying with 6-benzylaminopurine on growth, transpiration, and water and potassium uptake and flow in tobacco. Plant and Soil 256:169–178.Google Scholar
Wang, J., Zhou, Y., Dong, C., Shen, Q. and Putheti, R. (2009). Effects of NH4 +–N/NO3 −–N ratios on growth, nitrate uptake and organic acid levels of spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.). African Journal of Biotechnology 8:3597–3602.Google Scholar