Search

Abstract: Competing demands for water with increasing population calls for developing strategies for increasing the crop water use efficiency (WUE) of irrigated crops, especially in the semiarid regions of the world. In this context, it is important to quantify the various factors that control the WUE of irrigated crops in these regions. Advection is an important factor that can have significant effects on the energy exchange in irrigated fields of arid regions, and hence control the crop canopy WUE (CWUE). An eddy covariance system was applied to measure water and heat fluxes and then to quantify advection in an irrigated winter wheat filed at the Yucheng Integrated Experiment Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences in the North China Plain (NCP) (36°57′N, 116°36′E, 28m a.s.l.) in 2004. Priestley–Taylor parameter and canopy–air temperature differences were employed to identify the occurrence of advection. Effects of advection on canopy energy budgets and CWUE were examined by computing the equilibrium and advective evapotranspiration. It was found that enhanced advection occurs when the crop canopy–air temperature differences are negative or when the Priestley–Taylor parameter takes on values >1.5. Due to enhanced advection, the percentage of latent and sensible heat flux exchange contribution to the total water loss from the fields through evapotranspiration can exceed 50%, and CWUE decreased remarkably. Advection in the experiments probably resulted from drier soil regimes in the upwind areas. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In the North China Plain (NCP), while irrigation using groundwater has maintained a high-level crop productivity of the wheat–maize double cropping systems, it has resulted in rapid depletion of groundwater table. For more efficient and sustainable utilization of the limited water resources, improved understanding of how crop productivity and water balance components respond to climate variations and irrigation is essential. This paper investigates such responses using a modelling approach. The farming systems model APSIM (Agricultural Production Systems Simulator) was first calibrated and validated using 3 years of experimental data. The validated model was then applied to simulate crop yield and field water balance of the wheat–maize rotation in the NCP. Simulated dryland crop yield ranged from 0 to 4.5tha−1 for wheat and 0 to 5.0tha−1 for maize. Increasing irrigation amount led to increased crop yield, but irrigation required to obtain maximum water productivity (WP) was much less than that required to obtain maximum crop yield. To meet crop water demand, a wide range of irrigation water supply would be needed due to the inter-annual climate variations. The range was simulated to be 140–420mm for wheat, and 0–170mm for maize. Such levels of irrigation applications could potentially lead to about 1.5myear−1 decline in groundwater table when other sources of groundwater recharge were not considered. To achieve maximum WP, one, two and three irrigations (i.e., 70, 150 and 200mmseason−1) were recommended for wheat in wet, medium and dry seasons, respectively. For maize, one irrigation and two irrigations (i.e., 60 and 110mmseason−1) were recommended in medium and dry seasons, while no irrigation was needed in wet season. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Limited precipitation restricts crop yield in the North China Plain, where high level of production depends largely on irrigation. Establishing the optimal irrigation scheduling according to the crop water requirement (CWR) and precipitation is the key factor to achieve rational water use. Precipitation data collected for about 40 years were employed to analyze the long-term trend, and weather data from 1984 to 2005 were used to estimate the CWR and irrigation water requirements (IWR). Field experiments were performed at the Luancheng Station from 1997 to 2005 to calculate the soil water consumption and water use efficiency (WUE). The results showed the CWR for winter wheat and summer maize were similar and about 430mm, while the IWR ranged from 247 to 370mm and 0 to 336mm at the 25% and 75% precipitation exceedance probabilities for winter wheat and summer maize, respectively. The irrigation applied varied in the different rainfall years and the optimal irrigation amount was about 186, 161 and 99mm for winter wheat and 134, 88 and 0mm for summer maize in the dry, normal and wet seasons, respectively. However, as precipitation reduces over time especially during the maize growing periods, development of water-saving management practices for sustainable agriculture into the future is imperative. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]