Quantifying the effects of nitrogen and potassium interactions on wheat using a new development index

doi:10.1016/j.jia.2025.02.036

Journal of Integrative Agriculture

2026, Vol. 25

Issue (6): 2374-2388 DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2025.02.036

Crop Science

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Quantifying the effects of nitrogen and potassium interactions on wheat using a new development index

Luchen Zhang, Longqin Wang, Yongchao Tian, Liang Tang, Bing Liu, Yan Zhu, Weixing Cao, Liujun Xiao, Leilei Liu^#

National Engineering and Technology Center for Information Agriculture/Engineering Research Center of Smart Agriculture, Ministry of Education/Key Laboratory for Crop System Analysis and Decision Making, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Information Agriculture/Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Crop Production, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China

Highlights
● Nitrogen (N)–potassium (K) interaction index (NKI) was constructed by combining critical N dilution curve (CNDC) and critical K dilution curve (CKDC).
● N status plays a more dominant role in N–K interactions during booting stage.
● NKI performed better than N nutrition index (NNI) and K nutrition index (KNI) for predicting yield under N–K interactions.

Abstract
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摘要

氮（N）和钾（K）是作物生长必不可少的营养元素，但目前关于氮钾互作对植物氮钾营养状况及产量的影响仍缺乏深入的研究。本研究旨在以临界养分稀释曲线的理论框架为基础，开发氮钾互作条件下可诊断小麦氮钾营养和预测产量的有效指标。本研究采用3个小麦品种为期4年的氮钾互作试验数据，构建并验证了基于临界氮稀释曲线（CNDC）和临界钾稀释曲线（CKDC）的养分指数（NIs），并通过收集相关文献数据对构建的指数进行补充验证。研究结果表明，所构建的临界钾稀释曲线（CKDC）中的参数A1能够反映施N对K吸收与利用的影响，但在不同施N水平下，利用CKDC计算的KNI值差异并不显著。因此，以地上部生物量（AGB）为基础，进一步构建了通用的CKDC，并定义了N–K交互作用下的Kc = 3.63AGB^{– 0.37}。结果表明，整合CNDC和CKDC的氮钾交互指数（NKI）能够量化氮钾亏缺对小麦植株的直接影响，且可通过NKI评估小麦生长对氮钾浓度变化的响应。进一步研究发现，拔节期追施N肥可显著提高孕穗期N–K交互作用对氮营养指数（NNI）和氮钾交互指数（NKI）的影响（P<0.05），但对钾营养指数（KNI）的影响不显著。各项指标在抽穗期对相对产量（RY）的预测能力最好。与NNI和KNI相比，NKI对小麦产量预测的准确率分别提高了11.63%和17.44%。综上，NKI在氮钾营养诊断及氮钾互作下的产量预测表现优于NNI和KNI，增强了氮钾互作对小麦生长影响的解释，对提高N和K营养诊断及产量预测的准确性具有重要应用价值。

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) are key elements for crop growth, yet studies on the impact of N–K interactions on plant N and K status and yield are lacking. This study aimed to develop effective indicators for diagnosing N and K nutrition and predicting the yield of wheat under N–K interactions based on the theoretical framework of a critical nutrient dilution curve. A 4-year N–K interaction experiment involving three wheat cultivars was employed for building and validating nutrient indices (NIs) based on the critical N dilution curve (CNDC) and the critical K dilution curve (CKDC). In addition, relevant data from the literature were collected for supplementary validation. The results revealed that changes in parameter A1 of the critical K dilution curves (CKDCs) can reflect the impact of nitrogen application on K absorption and utilization. However, the difference in K nutrition index (KNI) values calculated by CKDC under different N levels was not significant. Based on the aboveground biomass (AGB), a universal CKDC was established and defined as K_c=3.63AGB^–0.37 under N–K interactions. The results showed that the direct effects of N or K deficiency on crops could be quantified by the N–K interaction index (NKI) calculated by integrating CNDC and CKDC, and the changes in crop growth in response to proportional N and K concentrations could be determined by NKI as well. In addition, topdressing N fertilizer at the jointing stage significantly improved the N–K interaction effect on the N nutrition index (NNI) and NKI at the booting stage (P<0.05), but it had no significant N–K interaction effect on the KNI. All indicators at the heading stage demonstrated the best predictive capability for relative yield (RY) compared to other stages. Compared with NNI and KNI, the prediction accuracy of yield with NKI improved by 11.63 and 17.44%, respectively. The NKI has better performance in diagnosing N and K nutrition and predicting yield under N–K interactions than either NNI or KNI. This result enhances our understanding of the effects of N–K interactions on wheat growth and has important applications for improving the accuracy of N and K nutrition diagnosis and yield prediction.

Keywords: critical dilution curve N–K interaction index (NKI) nutrition diagnosis wheat yield

Received: 11 September 2024 Accepted: 20 December 2024 Online: 20 February 2025

Fund:

This work was supported by the Jiangsu Independent Innovation Fund Project of Agricultural Science and Technology, China (CX(21)1006) and the Major Independent Innovation Program of Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Information Agriculture, China.

About author: #Correspondence Leilei Liu, E-mail: liuleilei@njau.edu.cn

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Luchen Zhang, Longqin Wang, Yongchao Tian, Liang Tang, Bing Liu, Yan Zhu, Weixing Cao, Liujun Xiao, Leilei Liu. 2026. Quantifying the effects of nitrogen and potassium interactions on wheat using a new development index. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 25(6): 2374-2388.

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