scholarly journals Spring maize yield, soil water use and water use efficiency under plastic film and straw mulches in the Loess Plateau

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Lin ◽  
Wenzhao Liu ◽  
Qingwu Xue
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Water Use Efficiency ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Soil Water Balance ◽  
Plastic Film ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
Spring Maize ◽  
Use Efficiency

Abstract To compare the soil water balance, yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of spring maize under different mulching types in the Loess Plateau, a 7-year field experiment was conducted in the Changwu region of the Loess Plateau. Three treatments were used in this experiment: straw mulch (SM), plastic film mulch (PM) and conventional covering without mulch (CK). Results show that the soil water change of dryland spring maize was as deep as 300 cm depth and hence 300 cm is recommended as the minimum depth when measure the soil water in this region. Water use (ET) did not differ significantly among the treatments. However, grain yield was significantly higher in PM compared with CK. WUE was significantly higher in PM than in CK for most years of the experiment. Although ET tended to be higher in PM than in the other treatments (without significance), the evaporation of water in the fallow period also decreased. Thus, PM is sustainable with respect to soil water balance. The 7-year experiment and the supplemental experiment thus confirmed that straw mulching at the seedling stage may lead to yield reduction and this effect can be mitigated by delaying the straw application to three-leaf stage.

scholarly journals Yield, Economic Benefit, Soil Water Balance, and Water Use Efficiency of Intercropped Maize/Potato in Responses to Mulching Practices on the Semiarid Loess Plateau

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1100
Author(s):  
Junhong Xie ◽  
Linlin Wang ◽  
Lingling Li ◽  
Sumera Anwar ◽  
Zhuzhu Luo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Water Use Efficiency ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Soil Water Balance ◽  
Energy Output ◽  
Plastic Film ◽  
Economic Return ◽  
Flat Field ◽  
Use Efficiency

Increasing agricultural productivity without undermining further the integrity of the Earth’s environmental systems such as soil water balance are important tasks to ensure food security for an increasing global population in rainfed agriculture. The impact of intercropping maize (Zea mays L.) with potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) on yield, land equivalent ratios (LER), water equivalent ratio (WER), water use, energy output, and net economic return were examined under seven planting systems: potato grown solely or intercropped on the flat field without mulching, maize grown solely or intercropped with potato on ridges or flat field with or without plastic film mulched. The three intercropping systems had 3–13% less water use than the monocropping. Among the intercropped systems, flat field caused more depletion of soil water than ridged field for both years. Compared to monocultures, intercropping with plastic film mulching and ridging significantly increased LER and WER. Meanwhile, intercropping with mulching and ridging significantly increased net economic return and energy output by 8% and 24%, respectively, when compared to monocropping. These results suggest that maize under plastic film mulched ridge-furrow plot intercropped with potato under flat plot without mulching increased energy output, net economic return, and water use efficiency without increasing soil water depletion, which could be an optimal intercropping system for the semiarid farmland on the western Loess Plateau.

Light and Water Use Efficiency as Influenced by Clouds and/or Aerosols in a Rainfed Spring Maize Cropland on the Loess Plateau

Crop Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 853-862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiang Gao ◽  
Fengxue Gu ◽  
Xurong Mei ◽  
Weiping Hao ◽  
Haoru Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Use Efficiency ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
Spring Maize ◽  
Use Efficiency

scholarly journals High-Throughput Phenotyping of Crop Water Use Efficiency via Multispectral Drone Imagery and a Daily Soil Water Balance Model

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Thorp ◽  
Alison Thompson ◽  
Sara Harders ◽  
Andrew French ◽  
Richard Ward
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Water Use Efficiency ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Water Use ◽  
High Throughput ◽  
Soil Water Balance ◽  
Balance Model ◽  
Crop Water ◽  
Crop Water Use ◽  
Use Efficiency

Improvement of crop water use efficiency (CWUE), defined as crop yield per volume of water used, is an important goal for both crop management and breeding. While many technologies have been developed for measuring crop water use in crop management studies, rarely have these techniques been applied at the scale of breeding plots. The objective was to develop a high-throughput methodology for quantifying water use in a cotton breeding trial at Maricopa, AZ, USA in 2016 and 2017, using evapotranspiration (ET) measurements from a co-located irrigation management trial to evaluate the approach. Approximately weekly overflights with an unmanned aerial system provided multispectral imagery from which plot-level fractional vegetation cover ( f c ) was computed. The f c data were used to drive a daily ET-based soil water balance model for seasonal crop water use quantification. A mixed model statistical analysis demonstrated that differences in ET and CWUE could be discriminated among eight cotton varieties ( p < 0 . 05 ), which were sown at two planting dates and managed with four irrigation levels. The results permitted breeders to identify cotton varieties with more favorable water use characteristics and higher CWUE, indicating that the methodology could become a useful tool for breeding selection.

scholarly journals Test of a microlysimeter for measurement of soil evaporation

2012 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danilton L. Flumignan ◽  
Rogério T. de Faria ◽  
Bruno P. Lena
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Water Use Efficiency ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Bare Soil ◽  
Soil Evaporation ◽  
Soil Water Balance ◽  
Use Efficiency ◽  
Inner Diameter

Quantifying soil evaporation is required on studies of soil water balance and applications aiming to improve water use efficiency by crops. The performance of a microlysimeter (ML) to measure soil evaporation under irrigation and non-irrigation was evaluated. The MLs were constructed using PVC tubes, with dimensions of 100 mm inner diameter, 150 mm depth and 2.5 mm wall thickness. Four MLs were uniformly distributed on the soil surface of two weighing lysimeters conducted under bare soil, previously installed at Iapar, in Londrina, PR, Brazil. The lysimeters had 1.4 m width, 1.9 m length and 1.3 m depth and were conducted with and without irrigation. Evaporation measurements by MLs (E ML) were compared with measurements by lysimeters (E L) during four different periods in the year. Differences between E ML and E L were small either for low or high atmospheric demand and also for either irrigated or non-irrigated conditions, which indicates that the ML tested here is suitable for measurement of soil evaporation.

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