Is low rooting density of faba beans a cause of high residual nitrate content of soil at harvest?

It was the aim of this study was to evaluate the hypothesis that low rooting density of faba beans is the major reason for the comparable low depletion of N-min-nitrogen from the rooted soil volume during the vegetation period. Therefore a simulation study was carried out using data from a two-year field experiment with faba beans and the reference crop oats. Since the nitrate dynamics in the soil is closely coupled with the water budget, the model simulated also the water uptake by plants, movement and content in the soil applying a numerical solution of the Richard's equation. The nitrogen budget part of the model includes calculation of vertical nitrate movement in the soil, mineralisation of nitrate from organic matter and nitrate uptake by the crop. Vertical nitrate movement was simulated with the convection-dispersion equation. Mineralisation was computed from a simple first order kinetic approach using only one fraction of mineralisable organic matter. Nitrate uptake was assumed to be determined either by the nitrogen demand of the crop, which was estimated from a logistic growth equation that was fitted to measured data of N-accumulation, or by the maximum nitrate transport rate towards the root surface. The latter was computed from a steady state solution of the diffusion - mass flow equation for cylindrical co-ordinates. For oats the model calculated a maximum nitrate transport rate towards roots that was quite close to the measured N-uptake of that crop. For faba beans, however, the calculated maximum nitrate transport towards roots was much lower than total N-uptake and lower than for oats. Consequently, simulated N-min-contents below faba beans were during the growing season about 20-30 kg N ha(-1) higher than below oats. This difference matches quite close with the observed differences between the two crops. Therefore it was concluded that low nitrate uptake resulting from low rooting density is the main reason for higher residual nitrate contents below faba beans at harvest time.