Background The retention of crop residues on the soil surface may increase the risk of Fusarium head blight (FHB) and mycotoxin contamination in wheat (Triticum aestivum) grains. Objective This study aims to evaluate the effects of reduced tillage systems (no-tillage or minimum tillage) and continuous ploughing, combined with a fungicide application on regulated and emerging mycotoxins, under natural infection conditions. Methods A 12-year field experiment was conducted within a maize (Zea mays) –wheat rotation system. The tillage and fungicide applications were assessed, according to a factorial design, under medium–low and high FHB risk conditions. Fusarium, Alternaria and Claviceps metabolites were analysed by multi-mycotoxin LC–MS/MS. Results Ploughing minimised FHB severity by 81% under high disease risk conditions, while reduced tillage lowered Septoria foliar disease severity and prolonged canopy stay-green during filling. Ploughing under a medium–low FHB risk increased the grain yield by 6%, compared with minimum tillage, while no yield differences among the tillage were observed under high FHB pressure. Triazole fungicide improved the yield by 14% and 35% under medium–low and high FHB risks, respectively. Ploughing, rather than minimum tillage, reduced deoxynivalenol and zearalenone by 75% and 60%, with a fungicide providing comparable effects. Reduced tillage increased the emerging mycotoxins, especially moniliformin and enniatins, but also the toxins produced by the Alternaria species. Ergot alkaloids, whenever detected, increased, albeit only under no-tillage conditions. Conclusion Integrated and adaptive cropping systems that combine residue management and targeted fungicide applications are essential to maintain productivity and food safety.
Recognizing the critical role of healthy soils in global food security, this large-scale study evaluated the physicochemical properties of 188 wheat soils across nine European pedoclimatic zones and assessed the influence of climate and farming system. Soils exhibited substantial variability in bulk density (0.7–1.7 g cm−3), pHH2O (5.0–9.1), effective cation exchange capacity (4.5–42.0 cmolc kg−1), base saturation (14%-100%), organic matter (1.6%-19.1%), and total inorganic carbon (0.7–106.3 g kg−1). Redundancy Analysis (RDA) showed that climatic and geographic factors were more strongly associated with soil properties than farming system, whose effects were significant but smaller and context-dependent. Mean annual temperature and precipitation were associated with soil pH, base saturation, organic matter, and inorganic carbon, and indirectly influenced bulk density and eCEC. Soil properties were primarily structured by climatic gradients, reinforcing climate as a dominant soil-forming factor. Farming system effects were detectable but variable across pedoclimatic zones, indicating that management can locally modulate specific soil properties, although with lower explanatory power than climate. Based on these spatial associations and literature projections, warming trends may contribute to increased organic matter decomposition, higher bulk density, and reduced nutrient retention. Mediterranean regions appear particularly vulnerable due to declining precipitation, potentially linked to alkalinization and salinization. Although organic farming can locally enhance organic matter, reduce bulk density, and maintain inorganic carbon stocks, its effects are secondary to climate at the continental scale. These findings, based on spatial rather than temporal relationships, support region-specific soil management strategies integrating climate adaptation to sustain soil quality, productivity, and ecosystem services.
Context and Objective Nutrient use efficiency depends on factors including soil nutrients, and the corresponding root system architecture (RSA) adaptations. The preceding crop (precrop) can alter soil nutrient levels, affecting crop nutrient accumulation and RSA, with further variation by region and variety. This study investigated how region, year, precrop and genotype were associated with nutrient uptake, RSA, and yield in on-farm winter wheat trials. Methods Field trials of winter wheat were conducted in three Swedish regions over four years in paired on-farm fields. In each region–year combination, one field followed a cereal precrop and one a dicot precrop. RSA and nutrient concentrations were measured, then scaling exponents and hypervolumes were calculated to assess nutrient profiles. Results and Conclusions Nutrient profiles of wheat differed consistently between fields following cereal and dicot precrops. Fields following dicot precrops had higher calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) concentrations, whereas phosphorus (P) concentration was higher after cereal precrops. Potassium (K) accounted for 46% of the total normalised random-forest importance for variation in Jaccard similarity among four-dimensional nutrient hypervolumes and strongly influenced element scaling exponents. Higher K concentrations correlated with nodal root number after an oilseed rape precrop and with yield after a wheat precrop. Nodal root angle also strongly correlated with P concentrations, with the strength and direction of these correlations varying by growth stage & precrop. Significance The findings emphasise the importance of taking environmental and management factors - particularly crop rotation, regional variations, and field management history – into consideration to optimise nutrient use efficiency and improve wheat yield over diverse regions and cropping practices. Understanding these interactions can guide agricultural practices and allow for better breeding for RSA traits.
Rising temperatures accelerate wheat development and shorten grain-filling duration (GFD), thereby constraining yield formation. We hypothesized that harnessing wheat germplasm could sustain GFD and/or increase grain-filling rate (GFR) and enhance resilience to warming through optimized source-sink dynamics. Here, we first conducted genome-wide association studies on 163 diverse cultivars to identify stable loci associated with GFD and GFR. We then developed a gene-based modelling framework by deriving cultivar-specific parameters of the CERES-Wheat model from the identified stable loci using Random Forest (RF). Finally, we applied the framework across 45 global sites under current and future climates. Pyramiding favorable alleles could extend GFD by 11.4% and increase GFR by 14.8%, resulting in yield gains of up to 9.5% under irrigated conditions and 2.3% under rainfed conditions in mid-century RCP8.5 scenarios. GFR enhancement was most effective in high-rainfall environments, whereas GFD extension was more beneficial at water-limited sites. This gene-based modelling framework reveals how genetic control of grain-filling traits mediates genotype × environment × management (G×E × M) responses under climate change, providing a tool to test marker-assisted strategies toward climate-resilient cultivars.
How well satellite imagery tracks crop responses to nitrogen (N) supply and deficiency directly determines its practical value for in-season N management. Leaf chlorophyll content (LCC), leaf area index (LAI), and aboveground biomass (AGB) are key proxies of crop N nutritional status, and vegetation indices (VIs) are widely used to retrieve them. Yet how VIs respond across N rates and split-application windows, and whether they can detect early N deficiency, remain unclear. From 2021–2024, a winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) field experiment was conducted across eight fields with five N rates (0, 60, 120, 150, and 180 kg ha–1) and three fertilization windows: vegetation onset, early jointing, and shortly before heading. Twenty-nine VIs were derived from Sentinel-2 imagery. After the first fertilization window, VIs tracked crop traits poorly (|r| = 0.01–0.33) because N stress had not yet emerged. The second window was optimal for tracking LCC (|r| ≤ 0.64) and LAI (|r| ≤ 0.88); the third window was optimal for AGB (|r| ≤ 0.78). VIs were more sensitive to canopy structure (LAI, AGB) than to leaf chlorophyll. RECAI/TVI and CCCI detected N deficiency more reliably than traits predicted by random forest. However, none of the indices reliably separated N-insufficient from N-sufficient canopies, indicating that mild N stress leaves only yielded weak satellite-scale spectral signatures. Overall, our findings demonstrate the potential of satellite data to support crop N status monitoring during the latter two fertilization periods.
Improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and reducing reactive N losses are essential for sustainable agriculture, yet quantitative understanding of how plant-derived dual-function inhibitors regulate fertilizer N fate remains limited. We evaluated cyclopentenone (CCO), a novel plant-derived dual urease and nitrification inhibitor, via ¹ ⁵N microplot experiments. Six treatments included: unfertilized control (CK), chemical fertilizer (U), U + NBPT (UN), U + DMPP (UD), U + NBPT + DMPP (ND), and U + CCO (UC). Three-year field observations showed inhibitor treatments raised maize yield by 7.4%–14.9% compared with U. In the 2023 isotopic tracing season, inhibitor treatments increased yield by 6.3–12.9% and NUE by 6.6–14.1%, with UC achieving the highest yield and NUE by promoting root-to-shoot N allocation. Functionally, UN reduced NH₃ volatilization by 6.4%, UD suppressed N₂O emissions by 44.8%, while ND exhibited limited synergy. Conversely, CCO simultaneously mitigated both pathways, reducing total NH₃ volatilization by 8.1% and total N₂O emissions by 12.8% relative to U, which reflects its balanced dual regulatory characteristic. ¹ ⁵N tracing revealed that fertilizer N residue in the 0–100 cm profile decreased to 18.6% of applied N, with fertilizer-derived NO₃⁻-N concentrated in the 0–20 cm layer (46.1% lower than U) and negligible residues in 40–100 cm. These results suggest CCO delays urea hydrolysis and nitrification simultaneously, alleviates nitrate leaching risk, and enhances crop N uptake. This study quantifies CCO’s efficacy in synchronizing high crop productivity with low N loss, highlighting its potential for precision N management and pollution mitigation.
Soil pH plays an important role in regulating crop yield responses to fertilizer inputs and exhibits feedback interactions under different fertilizer regimes. However, it is still unclear whether this mutual feedback occurs under the combined application of organic and inorganic fertilizers, which is a widely adopted fertilizer management strategy. We conducted a meta-analysis, integrating 2169 observations from 308 peer-reviewed studies to evaluate the effects of combined organic–inorganic fertilization on soil pH and crop yield under different initial soil pH conditions. The results show that the feedback relationship between soil pH and the combined application of organic and inorganic fertilizers is not universal, but rather depends on the initial soil pH. In acidic soil (pH ≤ 6.5), soil pH and yield increase synergistically by 6.06% and 6.92%, respectively. In neutral soils (6.5 < pH ≤ 7.5), soil pH increases significantly (6.05%) whereas crop yield show no significant response. In alkaline soils (pH > 7.5), yield increases significantly (6.52%) but without a corresponding change in soil pH. There were significant interactions between initial soil pH and climatic conditions, soil properties, and field management practices. In acidic soils, synergistic effects were most significant when the proportion of organic fertilizer was > 50%, the duration of the experiment was ≥ 9 years, and total soil nitrogen was < 1 g kg−1. By systematic analysis, this study demonstrated the mutual feedback relationship between soil pH and combined organic–inorganic fertilization, and showed that it was context-dependent. The results provide guidance for site-specific nutrient management.
Organic farming is frequently discussed as a strategy for mitigating nitrate leaching, especially in water protection areas. The effectiveness of nitrogen (N) management practices within organic crop rotations requires evaluation to balance yield performance with nitrate leaching. A field trial was conducted from 2020 to 2024 in North-West Germany, to assess the impact of grass-clover management on yield performance and nitrate leaching in an organic rotation of grass-clover-(cover crop (CC))-silage maize–winter barley. Grass-clover was mulched as green manure without N fertilization in subsequent crops or grass-clover was harvested. The N removed by harvesting was returned with biogas digestate fertilization (BDF) to subsequent crops. Additionally, two termination times as ploughing grass-clover in fall with establishment of a winter CC or ploughing in spring were implemented. Nitrate concentrations in leachates were analyzed biweekly during winter. Nitrate leaching was 65% higher after fall-terminated grass-clover compared with overwintered stands. Spring-terminated grass-clover enhanced maize yields irrespective of BDF. The combination of BDF to maize and spring-terminated grass-clover increased nitrate leaching after maize compared to both spring termination without BDF and fall termination with BDF. For winter barley, nitrate leaching was unaffected by grass-clover termination or BDF, but grain yields increased significantly with BDF. Grass-clover termination timing and BDF allocation across subsequent crops were found to be key levers for optimizing N management. The findings suggest that BDF can be reduced for the first crop after spring-terminated grass-clover and redirected to the second crop, thereby improving yield performance while reducing the risk of nitrate leaching.
Partial substitution of chemical nitrogen fertilizer with organic fertilizer is recognized as a key strategy for synergistically enhancing soil organic carbon (SOC) and crop yields. However, the effectiveness of this practice varies considerably depending on the substitution ratio, which hinders its widespread adoption. To address this issue, a meta-analysis was conducted based on 3424 field observations from 388 studies worldwide to elucidate the effects of different organic fertilizer substitution ratios on SOC and crop yields, and the underlying driving factors. Overall, the combined application of organic and inorganic fertilizers substantially increased SOC content by 20.20%, whereas the pooled increase in crop yield was statistically significant but modest (1.71%). However, a clear trade-off relationship was observed in their responses to the substitution ratio because as the substitution ratio increased from < 50% to > 50%, the improvement in SOC rose from 13.08% to 28.91%, whereas the change in the crop yield declined from + 3.67% to –1.09%. Further analysis revealed that the climatic conditions, initial soil properties, and management practices collectively regulated these responses. High substitution ratios were more conducive to SOC sequestration in warm and humid regions, soils with low initial C and N contents, acidic soils, or soils with low bulk density. By contrast, low substitution ratios generally enhanced yields under most conditions, particularly with irrigation, high nitrogen input, or long-term implementation. Global projections indicate that the greatest potential for SOC sequestration is in Africa and Asia, but the associated risk of yield reductions under high substitution ratios must be considered. In conclusion, the organic fertilizer substitution ratio should be precisely tailored to the regional climate, soil fertility, and field management practices to synergistically optimize increases in carbon sequestration and yields.
Nigeria’s rice sector produces about 8 million tonnes of paddy annually. This generates 3–5 million tonnes of milled rice husk (MRH), an unmanaged pollutant, yet nitrogen fortification for prolonged NPK provisions in acidic lowlands (pH 3.4–6.3) requires experimental verification. In the Guinea savanna, acidic soils (pH 3.4–6.3) constrain NPK dynamics in rainfed lowlands, where nitrogen fertiliser (NF) could catalyse MRH decomposition, which has been unproven at low rates (<60 kg N ha−1). This sequential study (incubation, screenhouse, and field) screened 14 MRH + NF ratios across three acidic gradients to identify the optimum for WITA-4 paddy yield. We hypothesised that supplementing non-charred milled rice husk with 9.6–30.87 kg N ha−1 would enhance decomposition, nutrient release, and rice yield by 20–68% and 32%, respectively, relative to the recommended nitrogen fertiliser rate (60 kg N ha−1 urea), including residual effects in the second cropping cycle. The four-year, multi-scale study consisted of an incubation experiment, followed by a two-year 3 × 14 factorial screenhouse experiment and a two-year 3 × 6 factorial field trial under three soil acidity gradients: slightly-acidic, strongly-acidic, and ultra-acidic. The optimised MRH3 + NF3 treatment increased soil N (23%), P (20%), K (68%) and Paddy yield (32%) compared with RNF (p < 0.05). In the second cropping cycle, N (82%), P (28%), K (11%), and paddy rice (37%) were higher than RNF, revealing the residual nutrient release potential of MRH + NF in acidic soils. Interaction of acidic soils with MRH + NF enhanced NPK release and paddy rice production. Economically, MRH3 + NF3 had the highest net benefit in all three acidic environments. Thus, the mixed application of milled rice husk nitrogen and nitrogen fertiliser at a ratio of 57.15:30.87 is a suitable soil amendment for improving nutrient availability in acidic soils for sustainable lowland rice production in Guinea savannah agroecology. This study extends previous biochar research by validating the application of milled rice husk at field-relevant rates and demonstrating its sustained effectiveness across cropping cycles with varying acidity levels.
Plastic film mulching increases crop yields but elevates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Deep nitrogen fertilization may alleviate this trade-off but direct evidence remains elusive. Thus, we conducted a two-year field experiment (2023–2024) by testing traditional fertilization without mulching (F), deep nitrogen application without mulching (DF), traditional fertilization with mulching (PF), and deep nitrogen application with mulching (DPF) to examine whether deep nitrogen fertilization mitigates GHG emissions under plastic film mulching. The DNDC model was further employed to evaluate the long-term yield improvement and potential for reducing GHG emissions. The results showed that DPF significantly increased the maize yield and reduced GHG emissions by improving the shallow soil water contents and lowering the inorganic nitrogen content. Compared with F, DPF reduced the N2O emissions and global warming potential (GWP) by 36.47% and 43.93%, respectively, while obtaining the highest yield (12,148.22 kg ha–1) and economic benefit (8199.60 CNY ha–1), thereby increasing the net ecological and economic benefits by 78.47%. Compared with PF, DPF increased the maize yield by 8.65% while reducing GWP by 61.81%. DNDC model simulations indicated that DPF increased the yield and maintained GHG emission reductions from 2025 to 2040 under different climate scenarios. However, the mitigation effect weakened during 2041–2100 under DPF, where GWP and GHGI increased by 74.64–105.80% and 35.13–62.50%, respectively, compared with F. Scenario analysis further showed that film mulching partly mitigated the N2O emission risks from long-term deep fertilization as the N2O increases were 25.95–36.23% higher under DF than DPF. Overall, DPF obtained short-term emissions reduction benefits and maintained its relative mitigation advantages under the near-future climate scenario (2025–2040), although its long-term GHG mitigation potential may decline during 2041–2100 according to DNDC simulations.
Understanding the drivers of within-field yield variability is essential for precision management in dryland agroecosystems where water limitation governs productivity. This study identifies and quantifies controls on sub-field-scale wheat yield variability using an interpretable machine-learning framework. Eighteen dryland wheat fields in northeastern Colorado (2019–2024) were grouped into aspirational (ASP; no-till, diversified rotation with spatial nitrogen zones) and business-as-usual (BAU; reduced tillage, wheat–fallow rotation) systems. Extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) models were evaluated under eight feature combinations that systematically included precipitation (P), soil moisture (SM), actual evapotranspiration (ETa), soil properties, and topography. Under random partitioning, models explained over 80% of yield variability in both systems. Performance remained stable even when high-resolution soil properties were excluded, indicating that much of sub-field variability can be captured using spatially explicit water indicators and terrain data. Under field-level holdout, models combining ETa and SM retained strong predictive skill, explaining ∼78% of yield variability in ASP and ∼55% in BAU fields. SHAP analysis showed that early-season water-related variables governed yield variability, with ETa emerging as the most spatially informative indicator of water limitation. Nitrogen-zone classifications were important in ASP fields, likely reflecting structured yield-potential gradients embedded within management zoning rather than isolated fertilizer-rate effects. Elevation acted as a secondary but persistent control. These findings demonstrate that explainable machine learning can provide actionable insight into water–management interactions driving yield variability in semi-arid, dryland wheat systems.
Yield gains in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) have been historically associated with greater number of grains per area and per spike. Alternative strategies to further gains will require improving spike fertility through greater number of fertile florets or reducing grain abortion. We studied the influence of selection for yield on spike fertility and the dynamic underlying floret primordium development and grain setting in a collection of eleven cultivars from different breeding eras. Two field experiments were sown during the 2022/23 season in Spain under a high- and low-yielding environments and contrasting photothermal conditions. Floret development on three positions of the spike was monitored twice a week from the onset of stem elongation to anthesis and grain number per spike and per area were measured at physiological maturity. The maximum number of primordia initiated was similar between cultivars and independent from environmental conditions. Modern cultivars had 15% and 26% more fertile florets and grains per spike, respectively, mostly evidenced in the central and apical positions of the spike. This increase was associated with a higher floret survival rate of primordia and the development of labile florets in distal positions of spikelet. Higher grain number per area in modern varieties was explained in greater proportion (59%) by the higher number of fertile florets at anthesis than the grain setting. Moreover, greater allocation to the spike in modern varieties highlights the importance of alleviating source limitations during pre-anthesis for achieving further gains in spike fertility.
Intensive agriculture confronts critical challenges of soil nutrient depletion and yield instability under escalating climate variability. To evaluate whether organic material amendments stabilize soil nutrients and enhance agricultural resilience, a five-year field trial (2018–2023) was conducted to compare chemical fertilizer (NPK), chemical fertilizer plus crop straw (NPK+S), and chemical fertilizer plus organic manure (NPK+O) in a wheat–maize rotation on the North China Plain. We monitored inter-annual dynamics of climate, soil nutrients, bacterial communities, and yields, and analyzed environmental-yield linkages via multivariate analyses including partial least squares path modeling. (PLS-PM). The results showed that organic amendments significantly increased soil organic carbon 4.1%–7.7% and total nitrogen 3.9%–6.2%, reduced their inter-annual coefficient of variation (CV) by 12.9%–32.4%, and concurrently lowered crop yield CV by 17.2%–27.7%. Straw return (NPK+S) delayed nutrient mineralization, attenuated precipitation-induced nutrient depletion, and provided synergistic water conservation and nutrient stabilization benefits during droughts. Conversely, whereas NPK + O increased leaching losses under intense rainfall. Phylum-level analysis revealed divergent microbial pathways: straw enriched oligotrophic Acidobacteriota and polysaccharide-degrading Bacteroidota for carbon stabilization, whereas manure triggered an excessive Actinobacteriota bloom while suppressing Proteobacteria, indicating stress-oriented filtering that may weaken functional resilience. PLS-PM demonstrated that the bacterial community mediated the effects of soil nutrients on yield, with the pathway shifting from direct climate-to-yield dominance under NPK to indirect soil-biology-mediated regulation under organic amendments. These findings indicate that straw return is optimal for semi-arid regions with high precipitation volatility to bolster system resilience, while manure supplementation requires strategic irrigation to mitigate nutrient leaching—providing key pathways for climate-smart agriculture.
Climate change is expected to reshape agroclimatic conditions and intensify extreme weather risks in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB), with major implications for wheat production in rice–wheat systems. Here, we evaluated 27 CMIP6 global climate models against observed climate records from 1980 to 2014 and selected three high-performing models to project future climate conditions under SSP245 and SSP585 scenarios. Downscaled climate projections and agroclimatic indices were used to drive an enhanced APSIM-Wheat model incorporating waterlogging stress effects on phenology and photosynthesis. Results indicate basin-wide warming of 2.1–2.8 °C by the 2050s (2031–2070), accompanied by substantial increases in growing degree days, high-temperature days, heatwave days, consecutive wet days, and heavy rainfall events. Future hydroclimatic changes are projected to intensify waterlogging risk, particularly in the middle and lower reaches of the basin, including Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangsu. Simulated wheat yields declined substantially when waterlogging stress was considered, with basin-average losses increasing from 6.9% under the historical baseline to 10.8% under SSP585 by the 2050s. Uncertainty analysis showed that representation of waterlogging stress dominated uncertainty in projected yield levels, whereas emission scenarios explained most uncertainty in projected yield changes. These findings highlight the importance of explicitly representing waterlogging processes in crop–climate impact assessments and developing region-specific adaptation strategies.
