Response of Lowland and Aerobic Rice to Ammonium and Nitrate Supply During Early Growth Stages

ABSTRACT Decreasing fresh water availability has intensified the search for alternative rice cultivation systems with reduced water input, but most evidence suggests negative effects on growth of lowland (LL) rice cultivars. Yield in such production systems may be improved by selection of adapted aerobic ‘Han Dao’ (HD) rice cultivars. Lowland and HD rice were compared under sole nitrate or ammonium supply as well as under mixed supply of both nitrogen (N) forms during the seedling and tillering stage; pronounced differences were found in response to the supplied N form. Shoot dry mass (DM) of HD was significantly lower than that of LL under sole and predominant ammonium supply, whereas LL showed the opposite trend, with significantly lower shoot DM under sole-nitrate supply. Nitrogen concentration of LL rice under sole-nitrate supply was significantly lower compared with other treatments at tillering stage. Han Dao rice had a significantly higher potassium (K) concentration than LL rice under sole-nitrate supply, while the opposite result was observed under sole-ammonium supply. At seedling stage, the portion of N that was taken up from nitrate-N varied from 30% to 40% in HD and LL rice in treatments 75N/25A and 50N/50A, while at both growth stages, predominant ammonium supply resulted in a lower portion (20%) of nitrate-derived N in LL than in HD rice. The portion of nitrate-derived N increased at tillering stage (from 40% to 70%). These results further illustrate a synergistic effect of co-provision of nitrate and ammonium on total N fluxes compared with supply of sole nitrate or sole ammonium. It was concluded that the interaction between N form and tiller formation during early growth stages deserves strong attention for the identification of aerobic rice cultivars.