Natural N abundance as an indicator of nitrogen utilization efficiency in rice under alternate wetting and drying irrigation in soils with high clay contents.

The N natural abundance is an effective indicator of nitrogen dynamics in plants. The impact of different irrigation regimes as a function of varied soil clay contents on stable nitrogen isotope abundance (δN) in rice remains unknown. Therefore, the response of δN and nitrogen utilization efficiency (NUE) of rice to different combinations of alternate wetting and drying irrigation (AWD) and clay contents were investigated. The study included three AWD regimes, viz. I100, (100 % saturation, 30 mm flooded), I90 (90 % saturation, 30 mm flooded) and I70 (70 % saturation, 30 mm flooded), and three soil clay content treatments, viz. 40 % (S40), 50 % (S50), and 60 % (S60) clay content. Compared with I100, I90 and I70 with high clay content (S60) significantly increased the crack volumes and N leaching losses and reduced the total N accumulation and different forms of NUE of rice plants. The values of δN in above-ground organs and soil were greatly increased by I90 and I70 irrigation regimes compared to I100. An increasing trend of organs δN from root to shoot was found for all three irrigation regimes. Significant negative relationships were found between (i) N partial factor productivity (PFP) and grain N, (ii) PFP and leaf N, and (iii) N harvest index (NHI) and leaf N. These significant negative relationships might contribute to the increased N losses and changed N allocation under AWD with high clay contents. Hence, it is suggested that cracks should be taken into consideration in rice cultivation. Moreover, δN may serve as an effective indicator of NUE in rice grown under AWD irrigation with high clay contents as well as an indirect indicator for assessing the N loss in agro-ecosystems.