Water use efficiency and its drivers of two typical cash crops in an arid area of Northwest China

Haichao Yu, Sien Li, Jie Ding, Tianyi Yang and Yuexin Wang

Agricultural Water Management, 2023, vol. 287, issue C

Abstract: Ecosystem water use efficiency (WUE), an important indicator to evaluate the interaction between the carbon cycle and the water cycle, plays a critical role in water resources management. In recent years, the cultivation of cash crops is becoming increasingly widespread in arid areas of Northwest China. However, the magnitudes and drivers of their WUEs remain unclear. In this study, we conducted continuous observations of water-carbon fluxes and related environmental factors in the field with the four rotations of cash crops in Northwest China. The results showed that: (1) The mean WUEs of cabbages and oats throughout their whole growth period are 2.24 ± 0.13 and 3.78 ± 1.68 g C kg−1 H2O, respectively. The WUE of oats is 1.56–1.77 times higher than that of cabbages, mainly due to their larger differences in gross primary productivity (621.8 and 1025.8 g C m−2). (2) The correlation analysis and the principal component analysis indicate that the WUEs of cabbages and oats are mainly affected by the physiological factors (leaf area) and environmental factors (air temperature), respectively. (3) The WUE of cabbages and oats are respectively 1.16–4.82 times and 2.33–9.69 times higher than those of main grain crops, such as maize, wheat, rice, etc. There is a more significant water-saving potential in the two cash crops than main grain crops in arid areas. These findings can provide a reference for the scientific development of typical cash crops and the water-saving practice of agriculture in Northwest China.

Keywords: Water use efficiency; Cabbages; Oats; Cash crops; Drivers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377423002986
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:287:y:2023:i:c:s0378377423002986

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2023.108433

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 ().