Duromide increase NBPT efficiency in reducing ammonia volatilization loss from urea

Abstract

Novel fertilizer stabilization technologies are needed to decrease ammonia (NH 3 -N) losses and increase nitrogen use efficiency. Duromide + NBPT is a new technology that combines two molecules, Duromide and NBPT, whose propose is to increase the efficiency of the urease inhibitor NBPT in reducing NH 3 -N loss from urea. Preliminary results showed that Duromide + NBPT can be a more effective product than just NBPT, particularly under low soil pH and high-temperature conditions. This study aimed to compare the effects of urea + Duromide + NBPT, urea + NBPT, and conventional urea on soil N losses by NH 3 -N volatilization. The field experiment was conducted on a Latossolo Vermelho Distroférrico (Oxisol) in Campo Mourão, Paraná, Brazil, using a randomized complete block design with treatments arranged in a 2 × 3 factorial, comprising two N doses (45 and 90 kg ha -1 ) and three N fertilizers (urea + Duromide + NBPT, urea + NBPT, and conventional urea). The NH 3 -N volatilization data were subjected to nonlinear regression using a logistic model. The NH 3 -N losses varied according to dose and fertilizer, reaching up to 12.4 % of the applied N in the conventional urea treatment. Urea + Duromide + NBPT was more efficient than urea + NBPT in decreasing NH 3 -N volatilization. Compared to conventional urea at doses of 45 and 90 kg ha -1 of N, urea + Duromide + NBPT reduced NH 3 -N volatilization losses by 35 and 54 % and from urea + NBPT by 15 and 33 %, respectively. The new stabilizing technology Duromide + NBPT reduced NH 3 -N losses by up to 33 % compared to NBPT alone. Ammonia volatilization was influenced by soil moisture. The volatilization peak, observed after 18-19 days of N fertilizer application, was triggered by rainfall events.

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“…Losses from UrDuromide were a little lower than from UrNBPT at both annual rates and very close to AN, and also promoted a slightly delayed onset of N losses. A delay in the initial loss of N from UrNBPT and UrDuromide was confirmed by Cassim et al (2021), increasing the chances that urea is incorporated into the soil by rain, for example, which would reduce NH3 volatilization. However, it is worth remembering that the ammonia loss measurement method in this study was not able to detect losses by denitrification and leaching, which occur more easily from AN.…”

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“…The next formulation considered is Ur-NBPT + Duromide, a stabilizer that combines two NBPT + Duromide molecules, both of which inhibit the activity of the urease enzyme, but having the advantage of a more stable chemical structure under low pH and high soil temperature conditions [ 9 ]. However, the use of Ur-NBPT + Duromide showed higher emissions of NH 3 -N (mean of 23.5% of the applied N) when compared to meta-analysis studies that obtained losses by volatilization of NH 3 -N of 14.8% using NBPT [ 26 ].…”

“…After selecting the model, the data were subjected to nonlinear regression using SigmaPlot software, using the logistic model of three parameters (α, β and γ) represented by Equation (1), as described by Seber and Wild [ 43 ]. This model has traditionally been used to estimate plant growth and nutrient uptake rates [ 44 ] and has been more recently used to estimate losses by NH 3 -N volatilization [ 9 , 13 ]. where is the amount of N volatilized as NH 3 -N (kg ha −1 ) at time t; α is the maximum accumulated volatilization; β is the time at which a 50% loss occurs, corresponding to the inflection point of the curve (the day when the maximum daily loss of NH 3 -N occurs); t is the time (days); and γ is a parameter of the model used to calculate the maximum daily loss (MDL) of NH 3 -N, as shown in Equation (2).…”

“…However, once applied to soil, urea is hydrolyzed by the action of urease enzyme, producing ammonia (NH 3 -N), which is rapidly lost to the atmosphere in the form of gas [ 6 ]. This loss may account for more than 60% of the N applied [ 7 ], depending on the soil and air temperature [ 8 ], soil moisture [ 9 ], soil pH [ 10 ], soil buffering capacity [ 11 ], presence of straw on the soil surface [ 12 ], N source [ 13 ], and rate of applied fertilizer N [ 14 ].…”

“…The N fertilizer industry has developed new stabilizing molecules to inhibit urease activity and has proposed combinations of enhanced-efficiency technologies, to obtain mixed (two or more granules) and/or complex (single-granule) fertilizers. For example, the new Duromide + N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBPT) stabilization technology reduced NH 3 -N losses by 33% compared to only NBPT [ 9 ]. On the other hand, the addition of nitrification inhibitors (NIs), which aims to reduce N 2 O-N losses and nitrate leaching (NO 3 − -N) [ 28 , 29 ], increases the volatilization of NH 3 -N by 35.7% and consequently the indirect emissions of N 2 O-N by up to 15.2% [ 30 ], leading to major debates on the use of NIs to increase NUE in EEFs [ 31 ].…”