1. Partial‐film mulch returns the same gains in yield and water use efficiency as full‐film mulch with reduced cost and lower pollution: a meta‐analysis.
- Author
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Lei, Tong, Luo, Caixia, Zhang, Runze, Hu, Changlu, Xu, Jiaxing, Sadras, Victor, Yang, Xueyun, and Zhang, Shulan
- Subjects
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WATER efficiency , *EVAPOTRANSPIRATION , *MULCHING , *PLASTIC mulching , *PLASTIC films , *CROP yields - Abstract
BACKGROUND: Plastic film mulch is widely used to improve crop yield and water use efficiency (WUE, yield per unit evapotranspiration) in semi‐arid regions. It is commonly applied as partial‐film mulch (PM: at least 50% soil cover) or full‐film mulch (FM: complete soil cover). The PM has lower economic and environmental cost; hence it would be a superior technology provided it delivers similar gains in yield and WUE in relation to FM. RESULTS: To solve contradictory results from individual studies, we compared FM and PM in a meta‐analysis of 100 studies with 1881 comparisons (685 for wheat; 1196 for maize). Compared with bare ground, FM and PM both increased yield of wheat (20–26%) and maize (37–52%), and WUE of wheat (16–20%) and maize (38–48%), with statistically undistinguishable differences between PM and FM. The increases in crop yield and WUE were stronger at elevation > 1000 m, with annual precipitation<400 mm, and on loess soil, especially for maize. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that partial‐film mulch could replace full‐film mulch to return similar yield and WUE improvement, with reduced cost and environmental pollution. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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