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eISSN: 2083-5906
ISSN: 1230-1485
ISSN: 1230-1485
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
The Appropriate Reduction of Nitrogen
Fertilization Enhances Soil Quality
without Compromising Fruit Yield
and Quality in a Bayberry Orchard
1
Wenzhou Vocational College of Science and Technology, Wenzhou, 325006, China
2
Wencheng Institute of Modern Agriculture and Healthcare Industry, Wenzhou, 325006, China
3
Southern Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Crop Breeding, Wenzhou, 325006, China
4
College of Environment and Resources, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China
These authors had equal contribution to this work
Submission date: 2025-02-13
Final revision date: 2025-03-31
Acceptance date: 2025-04-22
Online publication date: 2025-06-18
Corresponding author
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
The reduction of chemical fertilizers is a management practice gradually being adopted
in long-term fertilized soils. However, the effects of chemical fertilizer reduction on soil health have
remained underexplored in orchard systems. Through a two-year field experiment, we investigated how
the reduction of chemical fertilizers affects soil chemical properties, the soil quality index (SQI), and
fruit yield and quality. The results indicated that chemical fertilizer reduction significantly increased
soil pH and organic matter, while it decreased the available nitrogen and phosphorus contents in 2022
and 2023. The reduction of chemical P fertilizer enhanced the availability of Si, S, Mn, and Cu, while
it had no impact on the availability of Mo, Fe, and B. Chemical fertilization reduction did not decrease
fruit yield and quality, except for the 1/3N treatment. Moreover, the SQI for the N and 2/3N treatments
was higher. The random forest model demonstrated that SQI and soil pH were the most important
driving factors regulating fruit yield in response to chemical fertilizer reduction practices. Our study
suggests that the appropriate reduction of chemical fertilizers can enhance SQI and the availability of
micronutrients without decreasing fruit yield and quality, which may have direct implications for soil
health.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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| ISSN: | 1230-1485 |
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