Functioning Adaptive Management Watershed Site and New Nitrogen Fertilizer Recommendation Framework

White, Sanders, Ordonez, and Rivera-Ocasio are working to develop a functioning adaptive management watershed site and to validate a new nitrogen fertilizer recommendation framework for corn in on-farm experiments.

This team has identified an adaptive management field site in State College, PA. They installed groundwater monitoring wells, soil water samplers, and a network of soil moisture sensors at the site. They are collecting soil water samples. The team has also installed a runoff collection system, so they can obtain data about overland flow at the site. They will continue collecting samples so they can build a robust data set for this experiment.

Each growing season, the team conducts a series of on-farm experiments on different soil types and with different cover crop management practices. Six different nitrogen rates are applied to the corn to develop a yield response curve to applied nitrogen. The results of the yield response curve, and measurements of plant biomass partitioning and N uptake will help the team refine and validate the new nitrogen fertilizer recommendation framework that credits N from cover crops and soil organic matter.

Experimental Nitrogen Recommendation Framework Tools

White, C., Finney, D. M., Kemanian, A. R., & Kaye, J. P. 2020. Modeling the Contributions of Nitrogen Mineralization to Yield of Corn. Agronomy Journal, 1-14.

White, C., Sigdel, S., Karsten, H. D., Meinen, R., & Spargo, J. T. (2023). Recalibrating the Pennsylvania Pre-Sidedress Soil Nitrate Test Recommendations for Modern Corn Production. Agronomy Journal. https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.21426

Sanders, Z.P., White, C.M. 2023. “Can nitrogen recommendations for corn production be improved through spatially explicit crediting of cover crops and soil organic matter?” Smart Agricultural Technology, 6, 100336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atech.2023.100336.

Arrington, K. E., Ordóñez, R. A., Rivera-Ocasio, Z., Luthard, M., Tierney, S., Spargo, J., Finney, D., Kaye, J. P., White, C.M. 2024. “Improving a nitrogen mineralization model for predicting unfertilized corn yield.” Soil Science Society of America Journal, 88(3), 905-920. https://doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20665.