Organic fertilizers often contribute to nitrate (NO 3 − ) leaching and impair drinking water quality, because the mineralization of applied organic nitrogen (N) is often asynchronous with crop N uptake. Crop yield, crop N uptake, seepage water and NO 3 − leaching were investigated in a lysimeter facility (Zurich, Switzerland) under temperate climate conditions during two consecutive four-year organically managed crop rotations...

Purpose Alignment of crop nitrogen (N) demand with N supply is crucial to improve N use efficiency of organic fertilizers whose N is largely bound organically. This study aimed to evaluate the potential of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based multispectral imagery to monitor in-season N uptake and to assess how different organic fertilizers affect N dynamics. Methods A field trial in Wallbach, Switzerland, compared untreated ca...

Site-specific nitrogen (N) management in precision agriculture is used to improve nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) at the field scale. The objective of this study has been (i) to better understand the relationship between data derived from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform and the crop temporal and spatial variability in small fields of about 2 ha, and (ii) to increase knowledge on how such data can support variable appli...