Understanding of maize root responses to changes in water status induced by plastic film mulching cultivation on the Loess Plateau, China

Qilong Song, Fangfang Zhang, Xin Li, Shanchao Yue, Zhuzhu Luo and Shiqing Li

Agricultural Water Management, 2024, vol. 301, issue C

Abstract: Water stress is the most important factor limiting crop production in arid and semiarid regions. Cultivating crops using a plastic film mulch can significantly increase crop yields by optimizing soil hydrothermal conditions in semiarid agroecosystems. Therefore, clarifying root adaptability to plastic film mulch cultivation is crucial when attempting to produce stable and high maize yields. A two-year experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of two treatments, no mulching (NM) and plastic film mulching (FM), on the yield, water productivity (WP), and root morphology of spring maize on the Loess Plateau. The results showed that the FM yield (14.31–15.02 t ha–1) significantly increased by 18.6–29.7 % compared to NM (11.03–12.66 t ha–1). The FM treatment also significantly increased dry matter (51.0–61.6 %), leaf area (19.7–25.7 %), and WP (28.8–46.3 %), but decreased ET (8.6–12.8 %). In addition, soil water storage in the FM surface soil layer significantly increased compared to that of NM. Film mulching also produced more robust roots and promoted the convergence of roots towards the surface of the soil, whereas NM roots tended to grow downwards to obtain water from the lower soil layers. The regression analyses indicated that root length (R2 = 0.725, P < 0.01) and biomass (R2 = 0.736, P < 0.01) were positively correlated with grain yield. The results suggested that maize adapts to changes in root morphological behavior under FM. These changes contribute to soil water and nutrient capture and shoot development, which subsequently support the high yields produced under plastic film mulching. Therefore, film mulching is a promising strategy for improving yield and WP and for optimizing root morphology in dryland agriculture.

Keywords: Film mulching; Maize yields; Root morphology; Vertical distribution of roots; Water productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377424002671
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:301:y:2024:i:c:s0378377424002671

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2024.108932

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 ().