Crop Nitrogen Diagnosis via Specific Weight Dilution Curves
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Solution Overview
Problem
Agronomic experimentation in situ is often artisanal and lacks statistical rigor, relying on limited paired comparisons and imprecise estimates of biomass and grain yields, which hinders the accurate assessment of nitrogen nutrition index (NNI) due to the indirect and imprecise conversion of specific weight (PS) to biomass weight per hectare.
Innovation Solution
Directly converting specific weight (PS) of individual plants into a new nitrogen nutritional index (pNNI) by establishing critical dilution curves of nitrogen content as a function of PS, bypassing the need for biomass estimates and enabling more precise statistical inference through the comparison of elemental content response curves.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If biomass per hectare is estimated from limited surface samples, then agronomic experimentation can be conducted, but measurement precision deteriorates due to inter-plant and intra-plot variability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the population into individual plants and measures specific weight at the plant level rather than aggregating into biomass per hectare. This segmentation allows direct calculation of pNNI from individual plant measurements, avoiding the imprecision of biomass estimation from limited samples while maintaining experimental capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces specific weight (PS) as an intermediary parameter between individual plant measurements and nitrogen nutrition assessment. Instead of directly estimating biomass per hectare, the method uses PS as a mediator that can be precisely measured at plant level and then used to calculate pNNI, resolving the contradiction between experimental feasibility and measurement precision
2Reliability
If critical nitrogen dilution curves are established using biomass per hectare, then nitrogen nutrition index can be determined, but device complexity and measurement difficulty increase due to tedious aboveground dry matter determination
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameter basis from biomass per hectare to specific weight per plant. By establishing critical dilution curves as a function of specific weight rather than biomass per hectare, the method transforms the measurement parameter to one that is easier to determine (specific weight of individual plants) while maintaining the reliability of nitrogen nutrition assessment through the pNNI index
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of determining biomass per hectare and then calculating nitrogen nutrition, the patent inverts the approach by measuring specific weight of individual plants and directly calculating pNNI from that. This inversion bypasses the tedious biomass determination step while achieving the same diagnostic goal
Data Source
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AI summary
Method for diagnosing the nitrogen-nutritional status of agronomic, forage, horticultural and market garden crops by comparing their Na content measured in their dry matter of aerial parts (DMAP) to critical N content, called Nc, for this same DMAP and capable of ensuring a nitrogen nutrition index (NNI) = Na/Nc = 1.00 since Na ≈ Nc, characterized in that; ➢ the DMAP are those of individual plants of specific weight (SW) (e.g. g/plant) and not of biomass per unit area, or even per hectare, the value of Nc being here a function of this SW of the individual plants, and which includes the following steps; i) sampling of a series of individual plants for the purpose of determining their specific (dry) weight, SW (e.g.g/plant), ii) determination of the MSPA N content of this individual plant of determined PS, iii) comparison of this N content to a critical content, Nc, expressed on the same PS basis from a critical nitrogen dilution curve expressly as a function of PS of individual plants, iv) determination of an index of the nitrogen-nutritional status of the individual plant, and therefore now of the current crop from which it comes, as N/Nc.