Effect of Nitrogen Fertilizer On Cotton Host-Plant Quality and Its Impact On Arthropod Community

Nitrogen is one of the important inputs that significantly influence cotton plant growth and development and host quality for many herbivore insects. Soil nitrogen not only affects plant quality, but also influences the abundance of various arthropod fauna in an agroecosystem. The effect of different levels of nitrogen input on the host plant quality and arthropod community in a cotton agroecosystem has not been fully understood. Therefore the effect of nitrogen application in drip-irrigated cotton on the cotton plant quality and on arthropod community was evaluated at Texas A&M AgriLife Research farm at Halfway Texas in a multiyear long-term study. The influence of nitrogen applications on both cotton plant quality and the arthropod assemblage will be discussed.