Plastic response of leaf traits to N deficiency in field-grown maize

Nitrogen (N) utilization for crop production under N deficiency conditions is subject to a trade-off between maintaining specific leaf N content (SLN) important for radiation-use efficiency versus maintaining leaf area (LA) development, important for light capture. This paper aims to explore how maize deals with this trade-off through responses in SLN, LA and their underlying traits during the vegetative and reproductive growth stages. In a 10-year N fertilization trial in Jilin province, Northeast China, three N fertilizer levels have been maintained: N deficiency (N0), low N supply (N1) and high N supply (N2). We analysed data from years 8 and 10 of this experiment for two common hybrids. Under N deficiency, maize plants maintained LA and decreased SLN during vegetative stages, while both LA and SLN decreased comparably during reproductive stages. Canopy SLA (specific leaf area, cm² g^-1) decreased sharply during vegetative stages and slightly during reproductive stages, mainly because senesced leaves in the lower canopy had a higher SLA. In the vegetative stage, maize maintained LA at low N by maintaining leaf biomass (albeit hence having N content/mass) and slightly increasing SLA. These responses to N deficiency were stronger in maize hybrid XY335 than in ZD958. We conclude that the main strategy of maize to cope with low N is to maintain LA, mainly by increasing SLA throughout the plant but only during the vegetative growth phase.