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A research team in the Hefei Institutes of Â鶹ÒùÔºical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a novel ammonium adsorbent that significantly reduces ammonia emissions from wheat fields, enhancing the soil's ability to retain ammonium and thereby decreasing ammonia losses.

The research results were in Soil & Tillage Research.

Wheat plays a critical role in global food security, and nitrogen fertilization is a key strategy to enhance wheat productivity. However, nitrogen applied in wheat fields is often lost through ammonia emissions, which not only wastes valuable nutrients but also contributes to environmental pollution. Ammonia emissions are closely linked to the soil's capacity to adsorb ammonium, and improving this capacity can help mitigate ammonia losses.

In their study, the researchers compared the effects of ammonium adsorbent application with deep nitrogen placement on ammonia emissions in wheat fields. The adsorbent, primarily composed of humic acid-modified montmorillonite, poses no risk of environmental contamination, making it a sustainable option for agricultural use.

The results showed that the application of the adsorbent reduced ammonia emissions by 2.0% to 42.3%. Notably, when combined with nitrogen fertilizer, shallow soil placement (0–10 cm) of the adsorbent was found to be as effective in reducing ammonia emissions as the traditional deep nitrogen placement (10–20 cm) method.

This combined approach offers a promising alternative for wheat fields that are difficult to plow, replacing deep nitrogen placement and still achieving significant reductions in ammonia emissions.

"Our findings provide new insights and practical solutions to reduce nitrogen loss and improve nitrogen use efficiency in wheat production," said Dr. Yang Yang, lead researcher of the study.