Pedosphere 17(5): 639–645, 2007

ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P

°c 2007 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier Limited and Science Press

Ammonia Volatilization and Nitrogen Utilization Efficiency

in Response to Urea Application in Rice Fields of the
Taihu Lake Region, China∗1

LIN De-Xi1,3,4 , FAN Xiao-Hui1,2,∗2 , HU Feng3 , ZHAO Hong-Tao1 and LUO Jia-Fa5
1 Instituteof Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 (China). E-mail: dexilin2000@yahoo.com.cn
2 Department of Soil and Water Science, Tropical Research and Education Center, Institute of Food and Agricultural
Sciences, University of Florida, Homestead, FL33031 (USA)
3 College of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095 (China)
4 College of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Fujian Agriculture & Forestry University, Fuzhou 350007 (China)
5 Land and Environmental Management Group, AgResearch, Ruakura Research Centre, Private Bag 3123, Hamilton (New

Zealand)
(Received February 6, 2007; revised May 12, 2007)

ABSTRACT
Ammonia volatilization losses, nitrogen utilization efficiency, and rice yields in response to urea application to a rice
field were investigated in Wangzhuang Town, Changshu City, Jiangsu Province, China. The N fertilizer treatments, applied
in triplicate, were 0 (control), 100, 200, 300, or 350 kg N ha−1 . After urea was applied to the surface water, a continuous
airflow enclosure method was used to measure ammonia volatilization in the paddy field. Total N losses through ammonia
volatilization generally increased with the N application rate, and the two higher N application rates (300 and 350 kg
N ha−1 ) showed a higher ratio of N lost through ammonia volatilization to applied N. Total ammonia loss by ammonia
volatilization during the entire rice growth stage ranged from 9.0% to 16.7% of the applied N. Increasing the application
rate generally decreased the ratio of N in the seed to N in the plant. For all N treatments, the nitrogen fertilizer utilization
efficiency ranged from 30.9% to 45.9%. Surplus N with the highest N rate resulted in lodging of rice plants, a decreased
rate of nitrogen fertilizer utilization, and reduced rice yields. Calculated from this experiment, the most economical N
fertilizer application rate was 227 kg ha−1 for the type of paddy soil in the Taihu Lake region. However, recommending
an appropriate N fertilizer application rate such that the plant growth is enhanced and ammonia loss is reduced could
improve the N utilization efficiency of rice.
Key Words: ammonia volatilization, N application rate, N utilization efficiency, paddy soil, rice yield

Citation: Lin, D. X., Fan, X. H., Hu, F., Zhao, H. T. and Luo, J. F. 2007. Ammonia volatilization and nitrogen utilization
efficiency in response to urea application in rice fields of the Taihu Lake region, China. Pedosphere. 17(5): 639–645.

China, accounting for about 31% of the global rice production in 2002, is the world’s primary
rice-producing country (FAO, 2003). The high yields of rice in China are achieved through high N
application rates. In case of rice cultivation, in the Taihu region, an economically developed area of
China, an average of 300 kg ha−1 of N fertilizer, some reaching 350 kg ha−1 , is applied to the paddy
soil. To increase rice production in China, urea is the main N fertilizer applied in fields followed by
ammonium carbonate, with other forms of N fertilizers being seldom applied (Cai and Fan, 1998).
Applying such large quantities of chemical N fertilizer to paddy soil has resulted in the decrease of
N utilization efficiency and increase of environmental pollution (Cui et al., 2000). Nitrogen loss through
ammonia volatilization constitutes a very large proportion of the N fertilizer loss from the rice field soil
system. Many studies have shown that in rice fields, ammonia volatilization losses account for 10%–60%
∗1 Projectsupported by the Knowledge Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KZCX2-413-3), the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30390080), and the National Basic Research Program of China
(No. 2005CB121108).
∗2 Corresponding author. E-mail: xhfan@issas.ac.cn.
640 D. X. LIN et al.

of the total N fertilizer applied (Fillery and De Datta, 1986; Cai and Zhu, 1995; Song et al., 2004).
In 1990, the global ammonia volatilization loss was approximately 54 Tg N year−1 as NH3 -N, of
which the loss of 9 Tg N year−1 of NH3 -N was from ammonia volatilization of chemical fertilizer (Oliver
et al., 1998). For the agricultural ecosystem of China in 1990, NH3 -N released into the environment
was approximately 1.80 Tg, accounting for 11% of the chemical N fertilizer applied (Xing and Zhu,
2000). Only 5 years later, this release increased to approximately 2.71 Tg N. Xing and Zhu (2000)
found that ammonia volatilization from paddy soil (18%) is higher than that from upland soil (9%).
Therefore, to reduce the adverse effect of fertilizer application on the environment, studying the factors
affecting ammonia volatilization from paddy soil and developing reasonable fertilization practices are of
considerable importance.
The objectives of this research were to determine ammonia volatilization loss, nitrogen utilization
efficiency, and rice yields in fields at different levels of N application, and to recommend an ecologically
and economically viable N fertilizer rate for achieving higher productivity in the Taihu region.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Study site

The study was carried out in 2003 on a rice field at the Beixinqiao Farm, Changshu, in the Taihu
Lake region of China. The soil of the field was a paddy soil classified as a Hydragric Anthrosol (Soil
Survey Staff, 1996). The surface layer of the soil (0–20 cm) had a pH of 5.39 (soil:water, 1:2.5), an
organic matter content of 24.6 g kg−1 , a total N content of 1.64 g kg−1 , an available P (Olsen test) of
5.35 mg kg−1 , and an available K of 76.5 mg kg−1 .

Experimental design and procedures

A randomized complete block design with five nitrogen treatments and three replications was es-
tablished in plots of about 30 m2 . The treatments consisted of a control (CK with no chemical N
application) and four rates of N application: 100 (N1), 200 (N2), 300 (N3), and 350 (N4) kg N ha−1 .
The N fertilizer applied was urea (46% N content). Of the total N applied, 50% was applied as basal
fertilizer and 50% as top-dressing.
Rice seedlings were transplanted in June 22, 2003, and urea in the form of pellets was surface broa-
dcast uniformly by hand in each treatment plot. The first of the two top-dressings (30%) was performed
at the tillering stage in July 2003 and the other was at the heading stage (20%) in August 2003.

Measurements and calculations

Ammonia volatilization was measured with a continuous airflow enclosure method using a chamber in
each plot. The volume of the NH3 volatilization headspace (200 mm in diameter) could be adjusted with
the chamber depth where the chamber frame was inserted into soil. The air exchange rate, generated
by a pump, was set to 15–20 chamber volumes min−1 according to the volume of the volatilization
headspace (Tian et al., 1998). The ammonia volatilization rate was measured once daily in the morning
from 8:00 am to 10:00 am. For each measurement, the air continuously flowed for 2 h, and then the
chambers were removed to eliminate the differences in conditions between the inside and outside of the
chambers.
Flasks filled with 50 mL of 2% boric acid were used to absorb the ammonia gas for 2 h, and
the liquid was then titrated with 0.005 mol L−1 H2 SO4 to calculate ammonia volatilization. The air
flowed through the boric acid. Gas meters were fitted to record the total volume of airflow, and air
temperature and sunlight intensity were recorded during the ammonia volatilization measurements.
According to the result of the diurnal change in ammonia volatilization rate (Tian et al., 1998), the
ammonia volatilization rate in the morning (from 8:00 am to 10:00 am) equaled the average ammonia
AMMONIA VOLATILIZATION IN RICE FIELDS 641

volatilization rate during one day (24 h). Therefore, the ammonia volatilization cumulative fluxes for
each day (24 h) were calculated by multiplying the ammonia volatilization cumulative fluxes in the
morning (from 8:00 am to 10:00 am) by 12.
The rice was harvested on Oct. 28, 2003. Samples of rice grains and stems were dried at 65◦ C till
a constant weight was obtained. They were then ground and treated for measurement. Total N in
plants was determined by the semimicro Kjeldahl digestion method (Lu, 1999). The apparent nitrogen
utilization efficiency was calculated by multiplying the difference of the N absorbed by rice under the
applied N treatment minus the N absorbed by rice under the no N fertilizer treatment by the total N
fertilizer applied in the N treatment.

Statistical analysis

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to measure the relative significance of different treatments
through calculation of their mean differences. Significant differences among means were determined by
Duncan’s multiple range test, at P ≤ 0.05 and P ≤ 0.01. Data were analyzed using the programs of
SPSS 10.0 (the Statistical Package for Social Science for Windows 10.0).
A regression analysis for the relationship between rice yield and applied N was also conducted in
terms of the following equation:

Y = a + b × N − c × N2 (1)

where Y is the rice yield (kg ha−1 ); a, b, and c are regression coefficients; and N is the N fertilizer
amount (kg N ha−1 ). From the regression equation, the maximum rice yield for the applied N was
calculated, and then an economically favorable N fertilizer application rate was obtained by calculation
on the basis of the cost of rice and urea in the market.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Ammonia volatilization from basal fertilizer

Ammonia volatilization flux from the basal fertilizer for the four treatments in which N was applied,
reached a peak 3 d after fertilizer application, with the peaks corresponding to 61.5, 174.8, 423.6, and
501.1 mg N m−2 d−1 for the treatments N1, N2, N3, and N4, respectively (Fig. 1). After 3 d, the ammonia
flux gradually dropped, but ammonia volatilization continued until 14 d after application of the basal
fertilizer. Cumulative NH3 losses during the first week were 356.7, 777.6, 1 587.3 and 2 077.7 mg N m−2
for the treatments N1, N2, N3, and N4, respectively, which accounted for 73.4%, 84.4%, 72.2%, and
81.1% of the total ammonia volatilization losses during the whole basal fertilizer experimental period.

Fig. 1 Flux density of NH3 volatilization after applying N fertilizers on Jun. 22, 2003. N1, N2, N3, and N4 are N trea-
tments with basal application rates of 50, 100, 150, and 175 kg N ha−1 , respectively. Vertical bars are standard deviations
of the means.
642 D. X. LIN et al.

Total ammonia loss from the basal fertilizer was significantly greater with the treatments N3 and N4
compared with the treatments N1 and N2 (P ≤ 0.01), with N2 being significantly greater (P ≤ 0.05)
than N1 (Table I). Total ammonia losses as a percentage of N applied in this experiment (Table I) were
much lower than those reported for a rice field in another study (about 30% of the applied N) (Song
et al, 2004), but higher than the findings of Cao et al. (2000), who used a closed chamber method to
measure ammonia loss.
TABLE I

NH3 volatilization losses after fertilization during different stages of rice growth

Treatment Total N NH3 losses Total NH3 losses

applied during the rice growth
Basal dressing Tillering (top dressing) Ear bearing (top dressing)
kg N ha−1
N1 100 4.9±0.6cBa) (9.7)b) 2.4±0.9bB (8.1) 2.1±0.8bB (10.3) 9.4 (9.4)
N2 200 9.2±2.3bB (9.2) 5.1±1.5bB (8.5) 3.6±1.0bB (9.0) 17.9 (9.0)
N3 300 22.0±0.9aA (14.7) 14.2±2.0aA (15.7) 13.8±1.3 aA (23.1) 50.0 (16.7)
N4 350 25.6±0.2aA (14.6) 10.5±1.4aB (10.0) 11.8±4.1aA (16.9) 47.9 (13.7)
a) Means followed by the same letter (lowercase for P < 0.05 and uppercase for P < 0.01) within a column were not
significantly different, using Duncan’s multiple range test.
b) The numbers in parentheses indicate the percentages of fertilizer N applied.

NH3 volatilization losses during the three fertilization stages

For the three fertilizations, total N losses through ammonia volatilization generally increased with
the N application rate (Table I). For each of the three fertilization stages of rice growth, significantly
higher amount (P ≤ 0.05) of N was lost through ammonia volatilization, with the loss being greater for
the high N (N3, N4) compared with the low N (N1, N2) treatments (Table I). Also, during this time,
ammonia volatilization N loss as a proportion of N fertilizer applied was higher in the high N (N3, N4)
than in the low N (N1, N2) treatments (Table I). In addition, for the same treatment among different
fertilization stages, there were only small differences in the percentage of ammonia volatilization N loss
to N applied (Table I), with total ammonia losses ranging from 9.0% to 16.7% of applied N (Table
I). This was low compared with 28% of applied N lost reported by Song et al. (2004) who used a
micrometeorological method to measure ammonia loss in their experiment. The difference between the
results obtained from the two experiments might be due to the different methods used to measure
ammonia loss or to the different soil types of the two experiments, which in turn leads to the difference
in the soil pH, which is 7.15 in the experiment of Song et al. (2004) but 5.39 in this experiment.
However, differences in temperature were small between the two experiments.
Ammonia volatilization loss from urea applied to rice field was an important route for N loss. To
enhance N use efficiency (NUE), some management practices have been applied to reduce ammonia
emissions from rice field. The first was to lower the N application rate when N fertilizer was applied.
The results of this study showed that high N application rate led to high N loss by ammonia volatilization
(Table I), and urease inhibitors and controlled release fertilizers could be used to markedly reduce NH3
emission and to improve NUE (Keeney and Sahrawat, 1986; Pedrazzini et al., 1987; Freney et al., 1993;
Phongpan et al., 1995; Freney, 1997).

N absorption by rice

The N absorbed by rice, except for the highest N treatment (treatment N4) and treatment N3 in
the tillering stage, increased with the rate of nitrogen fertilizer applied (Table II). The rice seed grains
contained more N than the rice stems, and the N contents of the seed grains for the five treatments
were significantly different (P ≤ 0.01) and were in the following order: N4, N3, N2 > N1 > CK. Also,
N in the seed grains accounted for 59.4%–71.9% of the total N in the rice plants (stem + seed), with
AMMONIA VOLATILIZATION IN RICE FIELDS 643

the percentage of N in the seed to N in the plant (stem + seed) generally decreasing with increasing N
fertilizer rate, except for the treatment N4 (Table II).
TABLE II
N absorbed by rice plants

Treatment Tillering stage Ear bearing stage Maturity stage A/(A + B)

Seed grain (A) Stem (B)

kg N ha−1 %
CK 24.0Ba) 106.1cB 96.6C 37.7C 71.9
N1 41.5A 107.2cB 123.9B 59.6C 67.5
N2 42.2A 118.9bcAB 144.7A 82.4B 63.7
N3 38.3A 163.7aA 155.7A 106.3AB 59.4
N4 41.3A 144.9abAB 147.9A 100.1A 59.6
a) Means followed by the same letter (lowercase for P < 0.05 and uppercase for P < 0.01) within a column were not
significantly different, using Duncan’s multiple range test.

Apparent utilization efficiency of N in rice

The N contained in each 100 kg of harvested seed grains increased with the rate of N application
(Table III). However, the extra uptake of N caused the reduction of rice seed grains produced by one
unit of N fertilizer applied in this experiment, which was similar to the experimental results of Li et
al. (1997). Based on the efficiency of N fertilizer utilization, for rice growth in this soil type, 200 kg
N ha−1 (N2) was a suitable N application rate (Table III). In this experiment, the rates of N fertilizer
utilization ranged from 30.9% to 45.9% (Table III), which were higher than those reported by other
researchers. The nitrogen fertilizer utilization efficiency was reported to be 25.7% in the experiment of
Song and Fan (2003) and 27.0% in the experiment of Xu et al. (2002). The reason could be attributed
to the fact that soil fertility was lower in this experiment than in the other two experiments.
TABLE III
Apparent utilization rates of N in rice under different N treatments

Treatment N content Apparent utilization rate of N

kg N 100 kg−1 DW seed grains %
CK 1.55 -
N1 1.69 30.9
N2 1.83 45.9
N3 1.88 37.8
N4 2.02 31.6

Rice yield and N fertilizer

Rice yield (on a dry-matter basis) was significantly higher (P ≤ 0.01) with the treatments N2 and
N3 compared with all other treatments (Table IV). At the highest N application rate (N4), a surplus of
N resulted in lodging of the rice plants. Thus, it is important to apply a suitable N fertilizer rate for
rice to ensure a highly efficient utilization. This meant that field experiments should be conducted to
allow workers to precisely predict the effect of N application on rice growth in natural conditions.
The regression equation indicating the relationship between rice yield and the N applied (Table IV)
was: Y = −0.0344X 2 + 16.502X + 6055.2, R2 = 0.8326*, where Y is the rice yield, and X is the N
applied. From this equation, when nitrogen fertilizer was applied at 0–239.9 kg ha−1 , rice yield increased
with the rate of nitrogen fertilizer applied. With 239.9 kg ha−1 of applied N, maximum rice yield was
8 036.5 kg ha−1 . Considering the sale price of rice seed grain of 1.05 RMB Yuan kg−1 (US$ 0.13 kg−1
at US$ 1.00 = 7.80 RMB Yuan) and urea price of 1.20 RMB Yuan kg−1 (US$ 0.15 kg−1 ) in 2003, the
most economically favorable N fertilizer rate for rice was 227.1 kg ha−1 , which could produce 8 028.7 kg
644 D. X. LIN et al.

ha−1 seed grain with an N input to yield output ratio of 1:30.9.

TABLE IV

Effect of N application on rice yields

Treatment Rice yield Increment

kg ha−1 %
CK 6 242cDa) -
N1 6 911bCD 6.69
N2 8 174aAB 9.66
N3 8 272aA 6.77
N4 7 323bBC 3.09
a) Means followed by the same letter (lowercase for P < 0.05 and uppercase for P < 0.01) within a column were not
significantly different, using Duncan’s multiple range test.

CONCLUSIONS

NH3 volatilization loss is one of the important routes of N losses from rice field, leading to a N loss
ranging from 9.4% to 16.7% of applied N during the whole period of rice growth. Total ammonia loss
and the amount of N absorbed by the rice plants were related to the amount of urea applied. Increasing
N application could increase ammonia volatilization loss and N absorption by the rice plants. But the
ratio of N in the seed to N in the plant decreased with the rate of N fertilizer applied. The surplus of
N applied in the experiment resulted in lodging of rice plants, thereby leading to decreased nitrogen
fertilizer utilization efficiency and hence reduced rice yields. So excessive application of N fertilizer in
rice field could not increase rice yield but would result in more nitrogen loss. Addition of a suitable
amount of N fertilizer to rice fields is important. The optimum economical amount of nitrogen fertilizer
applied to rice was 227 kg ha−1 for the paddy soil in the Taihu region. In future, a rapid and accurate
method for predicting a suitable amount of N fertilizer to be applied to rice field should be studied and
developed.

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