Soil quality assessment provides a tool for agriculture managers and policy makers to gain a better understanding of how various agricultural systems affect soil resources. Soil quality of Hailun County, a typical soybean （Glycine max L. Merill） growing area located in Northeast China, was evaluated using soil quality index （SQI） methods. Each SQI was computed using a minimum data set （MDS） selected using principal components analysis （PCA） as a data reduction technique. Eight MDS indicators were selected from 20 physical and chemical soil measurements. The MDS accounted for 74.9% of the total variance in the total data set （TDS）. The SQI values for 88 soil samples were evaluated with linear scoring techniques and various weight methods. The results showed that SQI values correlated well with soybean yield （r = 0.658＊＊） when indicators in MDS were weighted by the regression coefficient computed for each yield and index. Stepwise regression between yield and principal components （PCs） indicated that available boron （AvB）, available phosphorus （AvP）, available potassium （AvK）, available iron （AvFe） and texture were the main factors limiting soybean yield. The method used to select an MDS could not only appropriately assess soil quality but also be used as a powerful tool for soil nutrient diagnosis at the regional level.
The optimized nitrogen fertilization location differs in different rice-growing regions. We optimized nitrogen deep-point application in root-growing zone（NARZ） for transplanted rice in subtropical China. Field plot experiments were conducted over two years（2014–2015） in a double-rice cropping system to evaluate the effects of nitrogen（N） fertilizer location on grain yield and N use efficiency（NUE）. Four different nitrogen deep-point application methods（DN） were compared with traditional broadcast application（BN） using granular urea. The results showed that grain yield, recovery efficiency of N（REN）, agronomic efficiency of N（AEN）, and partial factor productivity of N（PFP_N） significantly increased 10.3–63.4, 13.7–56.7, 24.7–201.9 and 10.2–63.4%, respectively, in DN treatment compared to BN, respectively. We also find that DN treatments increased grain yield as well as grain N content, and thus grain quality, in comparison with conventional BN treatment. Correlation analysis indicated that significant improvement in grain yield and NUE mainly resulted from increases in productive panicle number and grain N content. In our proposed NARZ method, granular urea should be placed 0 to 5 cm around the rice seeding at a 12-cm depth druing rice transplanting. In NARZ, balanced application of N, P and K further improved grain yield and NUE over treatments with a single N deep-point application. High N uptake by the rice plant did not cause significant soil fertility depletion, demonstrating that this method could guarantee sustainable rice production.
