Nitrogen absorption and allocation in cotton plant under effects of double-cropping wheat and cotton root mass
麦棉套作复合根系群体对棉株氮素吸收与分配的影响

By the methods of 15N-foliar feeding and 15N dilution, a pot experiment of double-cropping wheat and cotton was conducted to study the nitrogen absorption and allocation in cotton plant under effects of wheat and cotton root mass. Three treatments were installed, i.e., no separation of wheat and cotton roots (treatment I), separation with nylon net (treatment II), and separation with plastic film (treatment III). The results showed that both the competition of 15N absorption between wheat and cotton root, and the translocation of absorbed 15N from wheat root to cotton were existed in the wheat-cotton double-cropping system. The absorbed 15N by cotton root was mostly allocated in aboveground part, and less in root. The aboveground part of cotton had the highest N utilization rate (NUR) in treatment I and the lowest one in treatment III, but the Ndff was lower in treatment I than in treatments II and III. At the early flowering stage of cotton when wheat was harvested and its straw was amended in situ, the absorbed nitrogen by cotton was mainly from the applied 15N, but not from the amended wheat straw. The allocation of absorbed 15N in different organs of cotton was quite different, being much higher in reproductive organs than in other organs. The biomass of cotton plant was also higher in treatment I than in treatments II and III.