Morphological and physiological characteristics of rice leaves in response to PASP-urea and optimized nitrogen management

Polyaspartic acid (PASP)-urea is known to increase crop yield. Field experiments were conducted to compare the morphological and physiological characteristics of the leaves between plots treated with urea (conventional urea or PASP-urea) and subject to different nitrogen (N) management methods [farmers' standard fertilization practice (FFP, two splits) or optimized N management (ONM, four splits)] in Sichuan, China, in 2014 and 2015. A no-added-N plot served as the control. Grain yield was significantly associated with increased number of green leaves, total leaf area, chlorophyll concentration of rice leaves after the heading stage, photosynthetic rate per leaf lamina and accumulated temperature of senescence rate acceleration and deceleration. PASP-urea significantly enhanced the photosynthetic capacity of leaves to improve dry matter accumulation rate of the panicle after the heading stage over conventional urea, mainly by increasing the number of green lamina, leaf lamina area, chlorophyll concentration and photosynthetic rate per leaf lamina, as well as delaying senescence of the flag leaf. Compared with FFP, the ONM substantially improved the photosynthetic capacity of leaves to enhance dry matter accumulation rate of the panicle. Therefore, the ONM is a rational approach to applying PASP-urea that can improve grain yield by improving photosynthetic capacity.