Study on Soil Denitrification in Wheat-Maize Rotation System

Soil denitrification was studied in wheat-maize rotation cropping system on an aquic cambisol. Results showed that the N loss amount by denitrification ranged from 4.7 to 9.7 kg per hectare with different levels of nitrogen application and the key stage for denitification was during summer maize-growth-period, especially within 1–2 weeks after fertilizer nitrogen was applied. Similar trend was found between soil N2O production/emission dynamic and denitrification dynamic in the rotation system, which may indicate that mainly N2O is produced in nitrification process.