Amino Acid‐Enriched Phosphorus Fertilizer Enhances Maize Yield, Phosphorus Uptake, and Phosphorus Use Efficiency
Lin Cheng, Linchuan Zhan, Zongya Wang, Ximei Cao, Tingting Xu, Hongyan WuABSTRACT
The development of enhanced fertilizers using amino acid‐based biostimulants can help improve fertilizer use efficiency and reduce environmental emissions. However, in the context of phosphorus (P) risk management, the potential physiological mechanisms by which amino acid enhanced P fertilizers affect maize yield and P use efficiency (PUE) remain unclear. This study aimed to explore the effects of amino acid addition on soil available P, phosphatase activity, crop yield, and PUE through a soil column experiment. Five treatments were set up in the experiment: (1) no fertilization control (CK), (2) control without P fertilizer (NK), (3) application of diammonium phosphate (P), (4) application of 5‰ amino acid enhanced diammonium phosphate (AP0.5), and (5) application of 5% amino acid enhanced diammonium phosphate (AP5), with six replicates for each treatment. The results showed that amino acid enhanced P fertilizers promoted the absorption and utilization of P by maize and increased the yield, mainly reflected in the form of increased 100‐grain weight. The effect was most significant with an amino acid addition of 0.5%. Amino acid enhanced P fertilizers increased the P supply capacity of the soil and enhanced soil biological activity. Compared with the P treatment, the available P content in the 0–20 cm soil layer under the AP5 and AP0.5 treatments increased by 3.42%–6.46%. The activities of acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase in the rhizosphere soil of maize under the AP0.5 treatment reached 5.61 pKatal/g soil and 2.54 pKatal/g soil, respectively, significantly higher than those in other treatments. The research results indicate that amino acid enhanced P fertilizers, as an environmentally friendly fertilizer, can not only improve yield and PUE but also increase the soil P supply capacity and ensure soil biological activity, which is of great significance for agricultural production, P resource protection, and environmental protection.