Nitrogen fertilizer management effects on soil nitrate leaching, grain yield and economic benefit of summer maize in Northwest China

Abstract Reducing soil nitrate leaching losses from agricultural ecosystem and improving crop yield and nitrogen use efficiency with effective nitrogen management strategies are extremely important for sustainable agricultural development. A-two-year field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of five nitrogen management strategies (CK: no nitrogen application; FP: applying 210 kg N ha−1 at sowing; MFP: applying 105 kg N ha−1 at sowing and top-dressing 105 kg N ha−1 at V12 stage; Drip210 and Drip150: multi-split-N fertigation (MSF, sowing: 20%, V6: 30%, V14: 30% and R1: 20%) with 210 and 150 kg N ha−1) on soil nitrate-N (NO3−-N) distribution and residual, nitrate leaching losses, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), grain yield and economic benefit of summer maize in Northwest China. The results showed that MSF produced more consistent soil NO3−-N content over the entire maize growing season. The two-year average leachate NO3−-N concentration of Drip210 and Drip150 was 24.1 and 19.2 mg L−1, significantly lower than FP and MFP. The total nitrate leaching losses (TNLL) of Drip210 and Drip150 were significantly lower than that of FP and MFP (P