Simulation of nitrate leaching under irrigated maize on sandy soil in desert oasis in Inner Mongolia, China

Kelin Hu, Baoguo Li, Deli Chen, Yuanpei Zhang and Robert Edis

Agricultural Water Management, 2008, vol. 95, issue 10, 1180-1188

Abstract: Water scarcity and nitrate contamination in groundwater are serious problems in desert oases in Northwest China. Field and 15N microplot experiments with traditional and improved water and nitrogen management were conducted in a desert oasis in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Water movement, nitrogen transport and crop growth were simulated by the soil-plant system with water and solute transport model (SPWS). The model simulation results, including the water content and nitrate concentration in the soil profile, leaf area index, dry matter weight, crop N uptake and grain yield, were all in good agreement with the field measurements. The water and nitrogen use efficiency of the improved treatment were better than those of the traditional treatment. The water and nitrogen use efficiency under the traditional treatment were 2.0 kg m-3 and 21 kg kg-1, respectively, while under the improved treatment, they were 2.2 kg m-3 and 26 kg kg-1, respectively. Water drainage accounted for 24-35% of total water input (rainfall and irrigation) for the two treatments. Nitrogen loss by ammonia volatilization and denitrification was less than 5% of the total N input (including the N comes from irrigation). However, 32-61% of total nitrogen input was lost through nitrate leaching, which agreed with the 15N isotopic result. It is impetrative to improve the water and nitrogen management in the desert oasis.

Keywords: Desert; oasis; Nitrogen; Model; Water; drainage; Nitrate; leaching (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378-3774(08)00114-5
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:95:y:2008:i:10:p:1180-1188

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 ().