Carmona-Ortega, Fabián

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Validación del modelo de simulación para el rastreo de nutrientes (ntt) a nivel de finca en una siembra de plátano en Salinas Puerto Rico
(2021-07-02) Carmona-Ortega, Fabián; Pérez-Alegría, Luis R.; College of Agricultural Sciences; Sotomayor-Ramírez, David; Díaz-Rivera, Manuel; Department of Crops and Agro-Environmental Sciences; Villanueva-Vega, Marién
A field study was conducted to assess the ability of the Nutrient Tracking Tool (NTT) model to estimate N losses in a plantain (Musa spp. v. "maricongo") farm in the southern semi-arid coast of Puerto Rico. I evaluated four management scenarios and their effect on plantain yield and the N losses from leaching, emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O); a greenhouse gas (GHG), and surface runoff. The use of a fertilizer with a controlled release formulation (CRF) had no significant effect on cumulative losses of N2O-N after one crop cycle; however, cumulative losses of N by leaching were significantly less when using a CRF. N2O-N emissions were reduced under management scenarios that used a lower application frequency of N and a lower total amount of N during one crop cycle. There was a positive correlation between NTT estimated N2O-N losses and the values obtained from field measurements (r = 0.91 and 0.77) but overall, the comparison between NTT values and measured N loss values is inconclusive. More studies are needed to calibrate and validate NTT for its use in PR.