Abstract

FONSECA-LOPEZ, Dania; VIVAS QUILA, Nelson José  and  BALAGUERA-LOPEZ, Helber Enrique. Techniques applied in agricultural research to quantify nitrogen fixation: a systematic review. Cienc. Tecnol. Agropecuaria [online]. 2020, vol.21, n.1, pp.32-50.  Epub Dec 30, 2019. ISSN 0122-8706.  https://doi.org/10.21930/rcta.vol21_num1_art:1342.

Nitrogen economy is a subject that is growing in popularity at the global level, especially in relation to the agricultural activity, due to nutrient leaching caused by fertilization, as it contributes to the eutrophication of water. As a result, the population of algae increases, and thus, oxygen availability is reduced by accelerating the denitrification process in which N2O is produced, known mostly for its effect on global warming. Likewise, part of the fertilizer is emitted into the atmosphere by volatilization. This has led to the creation of techniques that allow quantifying the nitrogen used by plants and the one that is fixated in the soil through micro-organisms to make more efficient the use of nitrogen in agricultural systems. However, the most significant limitations are their sensitivity, specificity, cost, and the technology that is required to apply them. This has also led to the innovation of procedures and the creation of techniques that have a very low error rate. The aim of this work was to describe the main techniques used to quantify nitrogen fixation with emphasis on the background, procedures, mathematical expressions that are used and future scenarios. The information is described from the analysis of available trials included in the Scopus database. This work consolidates the techniques that continue to be used to quantify nitrogen and facilitates their use over time with prediction models, as well as their importance, advantages, and disadvantages.

Keywords : eutrophication; fertilizer application; forecasting; isotopes; nitrogen fixation.

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