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Highlights • Sub-soiling with rotary tillage in wheat season reduced soil penetration resistance. • SR in wheat season promoted soil water usage of 60–140 cm layers. • N-SR promoted the contribution of post-anthesis biomass to grain. Abstract Significant efforts have been made on the assessment of tillage impacts on crop growth during the current season; however, few studies have quantified the impacts on the succeeding crop growth under multiple cropping systems. Based on a multiple-year field experiment under corn-wheat cropping system in North China Plain, therefore, we examined the integrative impacts of annual rotational tillage on wheat growth and soil properties. The annual rotational tillage treatments consisted of two tillage regimes (i.e. N: no-tillage; and SR: sub-soiling with rotary tillage) in the corn season followed by three tillage practices (i.e. sTR: strip rotary tillage; R: rotary tillage; and SR: sub-soiling with rotary tillage) in the wheat season, respectively. The results showed that the N-SR rotational tillage of N in the corn season and SR in the wheat season significantly reduced soil penetration resistance and promoted soil water usage of 60–100 cm soil layers during wheat season. Meanwhile, soil NO 3 −-N concentration in the depth of 40–140 cm was significantly lower under the N-SR than other tillage practices except for the N–R ( P < 0.01 ). Average results of two-year dry matter accumulation and translocation showed that N-SR stimulated wheat biomass production and promoted the contribution of post-anthesis dry matter to the grain ( P < 0.01 ). Consequently, wheat yield was the highest under the N-SR ( P < 0.01 ). Our findings indicate that the annual rotational tillage of no-tillage in the corn season and sub-soiling with rotary tillage in the wheat season can promote wheat growth through enhancing deep soil water and N uptake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fertilization is an effective agronomic management technique for increasing crop production. However, the overuse of chemical fertilizer stimulates energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which are antagonistic to sustainable wheat production. In this study, we estimated the energy and GHG performances of different fertilization regimes based on a 32−year fertilization experiment. In this long−term experiment, there are five treatments: CK (no fertilizer with wheat residue removal), NPK (chemical fertilizer with wheat residue removal), NPKPM (chemical fertilizer and pig manure with wheat residue removal), NPKCM (chemical fertilizer and cattle manure with wheat residue removal), and NPKWS (chemical fertilizer with wheat residue retention). The results indicated that NPKCM and NPKPM consumed higher total energy than NPK and NPKWS, which was attributed to the extra energy usage of farmyard manure. Although NPKCM and NPKPM increased energy output by 4.7 and 2.8%, NPKWS stood out by delivering the highest energy use efficiency (EUE) of 6.66, energy productivity of 0.26 kg MJ−1, energy profitability of 5.66, net return of 1799.82 US$ ha−1 and lower specific energy of 3.84 MJ kg−1. Moreover, the yield scale carbon footprint of NPKWS decreased by 66.7 and 52.3% compared with NPKCM and NPKPM, respectively. This study shows that the application of chemical fertilizer in combination with wheat residue retention is a good strategy to increase EUE and economic benefits while decreasing the carbon footprint of wheat production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the actual impacts of climatic warming on winter-sown wheat production will benefit cultivar breeding efforts and agronomic innovations and may help to improve food security. Therefore, we conducted a comprehensive study across the main Chinese winter wheat cropping regions, comprising field warming experiments at four locations and an analysis of 36 years of winter wheat yield data. In the field warming experiments, an increase of 1.0 °C in nighttime temperature enhanced wheat yield by 10.1% on average ( P < 0.05 ). Warming-induced enhancement of 1000-grain weight explained most of these yield increases. Warming shortened the length of pre-flowering phase by 5.4 days, while it prolonged the length of post-flowering phase by 3.8 days. Grain yield increases with warming were similar across experimental sites, even though warming-induced changes in the length of growth periods decreased with increasing ambient temperature. Our analysis of the historical data set was consistent with our field warming experiments; between 1980 and 2015, the major Chinese cropping regions experienced significant warming, especially in daily minimum temperature. Across the historical data set, daily minimum temperature was positively correlated with wheat yield (142.0 kg ha −1 °C −1 ). Our findings are inconsistent with previous reports of yield decreases with warming and may help to inform policy decisions and agronomic innovations of Chinese wheat production to better cope with future climate warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]