Nitrogen Balance and Loss in a Greenhouse Vegetable System in Southeastern China

High rates of fertilizer nitrogen (N) are applied in greenhouse vegetable fields in southeastern China to maximize production;however,the N budgets of such intensive vegetable production remain to be explored.The goal of this study was to determine the annual N balance and loss in a greenhouse vegetable system of annual rotation of tomato,cucumber,and celery at five N (urea) application rates (0,348,522,696,and 870 kg N ha-1 year-1).Total N input to the 0-50 cm soil layer ranged from 531 to 1 053 kg ha-1,and N fertilizer was the main N source,accounting for 66%-83% of the total annual N input.In comparison,irrigation water,wet deposition,and seeds in total accounted for less than 1% of the total N input.The fertilizer N use efficiency was only 18% under the conventional application rate of 870 kg N ha-1 and decreased as the application rate increased from 522 to 870 kg N ha-1.Apparent N losses were 196-201 kg N ha-1,of which 71%-86% was lost by leaching at the application rates of 522-870 kg N ha-1.Thus,leaching was the primary N loss pathway at high N application rates and the amount of N leached was proportional to the N applied during the cucumber season.Moreover,dissolved organic N accounted for 10% of the leached N,whereas NH3 volatilization only contributed 0.1%-0.6% of the apparent N losses under the five N application rates in this greenhouse vegetable system.