Soil organic nitrogen rather than fertilizer drives dinitrogen losses in flooded rice systems
losses by ~35%. Hybrid rice increases yield by 59% and reduces yield-scaled gaseous N losses by 43% through enhanced fertilizer uptake and microbial N use efficiency. Together, these findings reveal an underappreciated pathway of fertilization-driven soil N losses, revise N budgets for flooded rice systems, and demonstrate that cultivar-informed management can simultaneously enhance rice productivity and environmental sustainability.
Authors
- Chaopu Ti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6660-8188)
- D Chen
- William R. Horwáth (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3707-0697)
- Zhijun Wei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4991-5909)
- Kees Jan van Groenigen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9165-3925)
- Longlong Xia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4026-4265)
- Xiaoyuan Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8645-4836)
- Shu Kee Lam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7943-5004)
- Jie Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4801-7162)
- Xi Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4638-3997)
- Lei Y
- H. He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3906-2037)
- Hongna Cui
- Wei Zhou
- Wulf Amelung
- Klaus Butterbach-Bahl
- Sheng Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6675-3991)
- Pete Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3784-1124)
- Kaiye Ye
- Yu Liu
Institutions
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- University of Aberdeen (GB)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Aarhus University (DK)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- Institute of Applied Ecology (CN)
- Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN)
- Sphere Institute (US)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Institute of Soil Science (CN)
- Ecosystem Sciences (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2026-04-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2603983123
- Primary Topic
- Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
- Government of Jiangsu Province
- Jiangsu Science and Technology Department
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province for Distinguished Young Scholars