Title: Effects of Supplemental Irrigation Based on Testing Soil Moisture on Dry Matter Accumulation and Distribution and Water Use Efficiency in Winter Wheat
Abstract: Water shortage is a serious problem threatening sustainable agricultural development in the North China Plain (NCP), where winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the largest water-consuming crop. Water-saving technique is one of the most impor-tant components in wheat cultivation system in this area. The purpose of this study was to optimize irrigation scheduling for high yield and water use efficiency (WUE) in wheat. Unlike earlier studies in which fixed irrigation amounts were given, we designed a ladder of relative soil moisture content at critical growth stages of wheat. The results are expected to provide general and valu-able guidelines to farmers and irrigation managers in high-yielding wheat production in the NCP. The field experiments was con-ducted with the cultivar of Jimai 22 in Shiwang village (35.41°N, 116.41°E), Yanzhou, Shandong, China in 2007–2008 and 2008–2009 growing seasons. The irrigation treatments were designed based on the contents of relative soil moisture at sowing, jointing, and anthesis stages which were 80%, 65%, and 65% for treatment W0; 80%, 70%, and 70% for treatment W1; 80%, 80%, and 80% for treatment W2; 90%, 80%, and 80% for treatment W3, respectively. The accumulation and distribution of dry matter and water use efficiency (WUE) in wheat plants were investigated subject to soil moisture and supplemental irrigation. The results showed that dry matter accumulation amount in treatment W0 was the lowest whereas that in treatment W1 was the highest at maturity stage. The grain dry matter ratio was significantly higher in treatment W1 than in treatments W2 and W3. After anthesis, the redistribution amount and the ratio of dry matter that stored in vegetative organs before anthesis were presented as W0W3W2W1, and the contribution of dry matter accumulation amount after anthesis to grains as W1W2W3W0. Under the W1 condition, the filling rate and net photosynthetic rate maintained a relative high level at the end of filling stage, which was favorable for increasing the accumulation and distribution ratio of dry matter and the grain weight at maturity. The WUE in treat-ment W0 was higher than that in other treatments. However, the grain yield was the lowest in treatment W0. In both growing sea-sons, the grain yield, irrigation water use efficiency (WUEI), precipitation use efficiency (WUEP), and irrigation benefit (IB) in the three irrigation treatments decreased significantly as more water was supplied. Under the experimental condition, the W1 regime was considered as the optimal irrigation treatment, whose relative soil moisture contents in the 0–140 cm soil layer were 80% at sowing, 70% at jointing, and 70% at anthesis stage. When 43.8 and 13.8 mm of water was supplied in the 2007–2008 and 2008–2009 growing seasons, the final grain yield reached the highest level of 8 837.8 kg ha?1 for 2007–2008 and 9 040.9 kg ha?1 for 2008–2009 with the highest WUEI and WUEP.
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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