Soil water use characteristics of maize field alternatively mulched with straw and plastic film in oasis irrigation area
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DOI:10.7606/j.issn.1000-7601.2021.04.07
Key Words: reduce plastic input  maize  tillage practice  plastic film mulching  straw mulching  water use  oasis irrigation area
Author NameAffiliation
CHEN Guiping (Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Arid Land Crop Science / Agronomy College, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730070, China 
ZHENG Deyang (Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Arid Land Crop Science / Agronomy College, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730070, China 
GUO Yao (Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Arid Land Crop Science / Agronomy College, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730070, China 
FAN Hong (Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Arid Land Crop Science / Agronomy College, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730070, China 
YIN Wen (Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Arid Land Crop Science / Agronomy College, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730070, China 
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Abstract:
      The effects of tillage practices (no\|tillage, NT; conventional tillage, CT) and mulching patterns (whole plastic mulching, P; 70% plastic mulching and 30% straw mulching, P7S3; 70% plastic mulching and 30% no mulching, P7S0; 50% plastic mulching and 50% straw mulching, P5S5; 50% plastic mulching and 50% no mulching, P5S0) were used to test water consumption characteristics, yield performance and water use efficiency of maize in the Hexi oasis irrigation area of Gansu Province. The results showed that NTP7S3 and NTP5S5 treatments reduced soil evaporation of maize field by 20.7% and 19.1% in comparison to CTP treatment, respectively. In terms of different mulching strips, compared to no straw mulching, maize straw mulching significantly reduced soil evaporation by 59.0% to 60.8%. Adjacent plastic mulching increased soil evaporation by 29.9% to 32.3% in comparison to maize straw mulching. These results indicated that reducing soil evaporation with NTP7S3 and NTP5S5 treatments was mainly due to the better inhibition of soil evaporation by maize straw mulching. Alternate mulching of plastic and maize straw with no\|tillage decreased water consumption in the vegetative growth period (jointing\|flowering period) of maize, but water consumption was increased in the reproductive period (flowering\|full ripening period) of maize, which effectively adjusted water demand contradiction of maize growth at each growth stage. NTP7S3 and NTP5S5 treatments decreased water consumption by 3.6% and 11.6%, and reduced the proportion of evaporation to evapotranspiration (E/ET) by 17.7% and 8.6%. The NTP7S3 treatment had a better effect for enhancing the efficient utilization of soil water. Therefore, NTP7S3 treatment had greater grain yield and water use efficiency by 4.6% and 8.4% than CTP treatment. These results revealed that alternate mulching of plastic and maize straw with no\|tillage instead of whole plastic mulching with conventional tillage did not lead to a decrease in the grain yield and water use efficiency of maize, but increased grain yield and water use efficiency, thus, this practice can be a feasible measure to reduce plastic input and increase productivity in maize production in the oasis irrigation area of northwestern China.