The researchers studied how maize and barley plants absorb and use nitrogen fertilizer in sandy soil. They applied labeled fertilizer to the plants and found that barley plants absorbed more nitrogen from the fertilizer compared to maize plants. Maize plants recovered 46.6% of the applied nitrogen, while barley plants recovered 37.7%. After harvest, some nitrogen remained in the soil, with more found in the top 50 cm for barley and evenly distributed up to 1 m for maize. Overall, 31.4% of the nitrogen applied to maize and 22.3% to barley was unaccounted for. The results suggest that the plants absorbed and utilized the fertilizer efficiently, with similar results to random areas outside the experimental plots.