Crop Responses to Nitrogen

Published Date
pp 2661-2681

• Author 

• Gilles Lemaire 

Definition

A prerequisite for the analysis of crop responses to nitrogen (N) is the determination of the plant nitrogen content and repartition. How much N is incorporated within plants and crops? Within which plant tissue? For which physiological function? Thus, according to the answers to these questions, it is possible to determine a critical plant nitrogen status as the minimum plant N concentration that allows the maximum plant (or crop) growth rate. It has been demonstrated that this critical plant N concentration decreases as plant grows as the result of an ontogenetic plant architecture development leading to a dilution of N compounds within increasing proportion of free-N compounds as plant gets bigger. This N dilution process can be formulated through a negative power relationship between plant N concentration and crop mass. This critical N dilution curve allows the discrimination of situations of N deficiency (below the curve) and situa ...

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1. Gastal F, Lemaire G (2002) N uptake and distribution in crops: an agronomical and ecophysiological perspective. J Exp Bot 53:789–799CrossRef
2. Grindlay DJC (1997) Towards an explanation of crop nitrogen demand based on leaf nitrogen per unit leaf area. J Sci Food Agric 63:116–123
3. Hirel B, Lemaire G (2005) From agronomy and ecophysiology to molecular genetics for improving nitrogen use efficiency in crops. J Crop Imp 15:213–257CrossRef
4. Justes E, Mary B, Meynard JM, Machet JM, Thellier-Huché L (1994) Determination of a critical nitrogen dilution curve for winter wheat crops. Ann Bot 74:397–407CrossRef
5. Lemaire G, Gastal F (1997) N uptake and distribution in plant canopies. In: Lemaire G (ed) Diagnosis on the nitrogen status in crops. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 3–43CrossRef
6. Lemaire G, Gastal F (2009) Quantifying crop responses to nitrogen deficiency and avenues to improve nitrogen use efficiency
7. Lemaire G, Jeuffroy MH, Gastal F (2008) Diagnostis tool for plant and crop N status in vegetative stage. Theory and practices for crop N management. Eur J Agron 28:614–624CrossRef
8. Lemaire G, Recous S, Mary B (2004) Managing residues and nitrogen in intensive cropping systems. New understandings for efficient recovery by crops. In: Proceedings of the 4th international crop science congress, Brisbane, Australia, 2004
9. Lemaire G, van Oosterom E, Jeuffroz MH, Gastal F, Massignan A (2008) Crop species present different qualitative types of response to N deficiency during their vegetative growth. Field Crop Res 105:253–265CrossRef
10. Lemaire G, van Oosterom E, Sheehy J, Jeuffroy MH, Massignan A, Rossato L (2007) Is crop demand closely related to dry matter accumulation of leaf area expansion during vegetative growth? Field Crop Res 100:91–106CrossRef
11. Sinclair TR, Horie T (1989) Leaf nitrogen, photosynthesis, and crop radiation use efficiency: a review. Crop Sci 29:90–98CrossRef
12. Sinclair TR (1998) Historical changes in harvest index crop N accumulation. Crop Sci 38:638–643CrossRef
13. Van Keulen H, Goudrian J, Seligman NG (1989) Modelling the effects of nitrogen on canopy development and crop growth. In: Rusell G, Marshall LB, Jarvis PG (eds) Plant canopies: their growth, form and function. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 83–104CrossRef

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