Li et al. (2026) Optimizing water and nitrogen management improves maize productivity by enhancing soil-root-shoot coordination and resource-use efficiency

Identification

• Journal: Agricultural Water Management
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-06-23
• Authors: Ge Li, Weibo Nie, Chunyi Feng, QianCheng Wang
• DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2026.110565

Research Groups

• State Key Laboratory of Water Engineering Ecology and Environment in Arid Area, Xi’an University of Technology

Short Summary

This study investigates the effects of optimized water and nitrogen management on maize productivity by enhancing soil-root-shoot coordination and resource-use efficiency. The results show that irrigation and nitrogen application can regulate soil water-nitrogen transport, root-zone resource availability, and soil-root-shoot coordination to improve crop performance.

Objective

• Investigate the responses of maize root growth, dry matter accumulation and partitioning, and their coordination under different water and nitrogen regimes.
• Develop a dynamic model of LAI under varying irrigation and nitrogen conditions.
• Evaluate the effects of irrigation and nitrogen levels on photosynthetic characteristics, dry matter accumulation, and partitioning.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Field scale (24 m2)
• Temporal Scale: Two growing seasons (2024–2025)

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Logistic growth model for LAI dynamics
• Data sources: Satellite data, observation data, reanalysis data

Main Results

• Irrigation and nitrogen application can regulate soil water-nitrogen transport, root-zone resource availability, and soil-root-shoot coordination to improve crop performance.
• The active accumulated temperature-based Logistic model effectively described LAI dynamics under different irrigation and nitrogen conditions.
• Photosynthetic characteristics, including net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), transpiration rate (Tr), and intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci), were significantly affected by irrigation and nitrogen levels.

Contributions

• This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the effects of optimized water and nitrogen management on maize productivity.
• The developed LAI growth model can be used to simulate and predict crop performance under different water and nitrogen conditions.

Funding

• This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52109212) and the Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province (Grant No. 2022SF-108).
• The study was also supported by the State Key Laboratory of Water Engineering Ecology and Environment in Arid Area, Xi’an University of Technology.

Citation

@article{Li2026Optimizing,
  author = {Li, Ge and Nie, Weibo and Feng, Chunyi and Wang, QianCheng},
  title = {Optimizing water and nitrogen management improves maize productivity by enhancing soil-root-shoot coordination and resource-use efficiency},
  journal = {Agricultural Water Management},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.agwat.2026.110565},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2026.110565}
}