Mitigation fluctuations of inter-row water use efficiency of spring wheat via narrowing row space in enlarged lateral space drip irrigation systems

Wenliang Wan, Yanhui Zhao, Zijian Wang, Liulong Li, Jianguo Jing, Zhaoyan Lv, Ming Diao, Weihua Li, Guiying Jiang, Xiao Wang and Dong Jiang

Agricultural Water Management, 2022, vol. 274, issue C

Abstract: Water use efficiency (WUE) is key indicator of balance between crop water demand and artificial water input in irrigation management. This makes specific importance of accurate evaluating largely diverse WUE of plants differently distant from the drip tube in the enlarged lateral space (ELS) drip irrigation wheat systems. To achieve this, we compared WUE calculated from differentiation of stable carbon isotopes (δ13C, WUE13 C), with those from grain yield (WUEYield) or dry matter accumulation (WUEDM) per evaportranspirated water in a two-year field trial with different ELS patterns in Xinjiang. Seven patterns were included, the normal ELS pattern by simply expanding drip tube to plant rows ratio from four (TR4, conventional pattern) to six (TR6) and eight (TR8) with row space (RS) of 15 cm; modified ELS by narrowing RS (NRS) to 10 cm to leave large inter-block space (IBS) of 35 cm and 45 cm for TR6L and TR8L, respectively; and Shortened IBS to 25 cm of TR6S and TR8S. Compared with TR4, ELS effectively improved all WUE parameters due to significant WUE increase in the outermost rows to drip tube, probably as a result of reduced received irrigation water (RIW). This led to large variations in WUE between rows, with inter-row coefficient of variation (C.V) of 6.2 %− 13.6 % for TR6 and TR8 (only 0.2 %− 2.3 % for TR4), respectively. The modified ELS patterns effectively reduced inter-row C.V to 2.9 %− 7.0 % for TR6L and TR8L, and 2.2 %− 5.7 % for TR6S and TR8S, respectively. NRS and SIBS effectively reduced the inter-row WUE heterogeneity, and facilitated overall yield and WUE. Considering satisfied WUE and high yield, TR6S was recommended the optimum ELS drip irrigation pattern. Moreover, WUE13 C was less fluctuant in response to reduced RIW as WUEDM and WUEYield, and was suggested proper indicator reflecting WUE of different rows in ELS patterns. The results should help guide better WUE evaluation under complex conditions and optimize more water-saving and productive drip irrigated wheat patterns.

Keywords: Drip irrigation; Plants and drip tube configuration; Spring wheat; Water use efficiency; Water management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377422005054
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:274:y:2022:i:c:s0378377422005054

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2022.107958

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().