The Structure and Diversity of Nitrogen Functional Groups from Different Cropping Systems in Yellow River Delta

The Yellow River Delta (YRD) region is an important production base in Shandong Province. It encompasses an array of diversified crop systems, including the corn–wheat rotation system (Wheat–Corn), soybean–corn rotation system (Soybean–Corn), fruits or vegetables system (Fruit), cotton system (Cotton) and rice system (Rice). In this study, the communities of ammonia oxidizer–, denitrifier– and nitrogen (N)–fixing bacteria in those cropping systems were investigated by Illumina Miseq sequencing. We found that Rice soil exhibited significantly higher diversity indices of investigated N–cycling microbial communities than other crop soils, possibly due to its high soil water content. Wheat–Corn soils had higher abundances of nitrification gene amoA and denitrification genes nirK and nirS, and exhibited higher soil potential nitrification rate (PNR), compared with Soybean–Corn, Cotton and Fruit soils. Consistently, redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that soil water content (SWC), electrical conductivity (EC), and total nitrogen (TN) were the most important influencing factors of the diversity and structure of the investigated N–cycling microbial.

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Trait-based adaptability of Phragmites australis to the effects of soil water and salinity in the Yellow River Delta

10.22541/au.161342230.01798188/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Dayou Zhou ◽

Yuehan Ni ◽

Xiaona Yu ◽

Kuixuan Lin ◽

Ning Du ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Electrical Conductivity ◽

Water Content ◽

Soil Water ◽

Soil Water Content ◽

Functional Traits ◽

Yellow River ◽

Yellow River Delta ◽

River Delta ◽

The Yellow River ◽

The Yellow River Delta

Phragmites australis is the dominant species in the Yellow River Delta and plays an important role in wetland ecosystems. Ecological responses of the P. australis community to soil properties were investigated in 96 areas along the coastal-inland regions in the Yellow River Delta of China. The aim was to evaluate the relationship between phenotypic variation and environmental factors, reveal which functional traits could well respond to changes in electrical conductivity and soil water content, and the ecological strategies of P. australis. Within the range of soil water content (9.39–36.92%) and electrical conductivity (0.14–13.29 ms/cm), the results showed that the effects of soil water content and salinity were not equally important for the characterization of the morphological and physiological variability, and that plant functional traits including leaf traits and stem traits responded more strongly to soil salinity than soil water content. Our results suggested that salinity leads to reduced average height, specific leaf area, leaf area, and base stem diameter, but increased leaf water content and leaf thickness. The relationships between functional traits and electrical conductivity were generally linear and logarithmic. The coefficients of variation of morphological traits showed more phenotypic plasticity than the physiological traits. Salinity also led to the stress tolerator/competitor-stress tolerator (S/CS) strategies of P. australis; with the decrease of environmental stress, the main strategy gradually moved to the competitor (C) strategy, making P. australis the dominant species in the Yellow River Delta. KEYWORDS: Soil water content, Electrical conductivity, Functional traits, Plasticity, Life strategies.

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Rainfall Intensification Enhances Deep Percolation and Soil Water Content in Tilled and No-Till Cropping Systems of the US Midwest

Vadose Zone Journal ◽

10.2136/vzj2018.07.0128 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 180128 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Laura J.T. Hess ◽

Eve-Lyn S. Hinckley ◽

G. Philip Robertson ◽

Stephen K. Hamilton ◽

Pamela A. Matson

Keyword(s):

Water Content ◽

Soil Water ◽

Soil Water Content ◽

Cropping Systems ◽

Deep Percolation ◽

No Till ◽

The Us ◽

Us Midwest

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Enhancing Soil Water Content for Increased Food Production in Semi-Arid Areas of Kenya Results From an On-Farm Trial in Mwala District, Kenya

Journal of Agricultural Science ◽

10.5539/jas.v6n4p125 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 125 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Anne Karuma ◽

Peter Mtakwa ◽

Nyambilila Amuri ◽

Charles K. Gachene ◽

Patrick Gicheru

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Water Content ◽

Soil Water ◽

Soil Water Content ◽

Water Conservation ◽

Crop Yields ◽

Conservation Tillage ◽

Cropping Systems ◽

Soil Conditions ◽

Tillage Methods

Soil water conservation through tillage is one of the appropriate ways of addressing soil moisture deficit in rainfed agriculture. This study evaluated the effects of tillage practices on soil moisture conservation and crop yields in Mwala District, Eastern Kenya during the long rains (LR) and short rains (SR) of 2012/13. Six tillage systems: Disc plough (MB), Disc plough and harrowing (MBH), Ox-ploughing (OX), Subsoiling – ripping (SR), Hand hoe and Tied Ridges (HTR) and Hand hoe only (H) and, three cropping systems namely, sole maize, sole bean and maize - bean intercrop, were investigated in a split-plot design with four replicates. Data on soil water content was monitored at different weeks after planting and the crop yields at end of each growing season. A three-season average shows that soil water content and crop yields were higher in conventional tillage methods compared to the conservation tillage methods. Long term tillage experiments are thus required at different locations, under various environmental and soil conditions to validate the study findings.

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