Continuous maize cultivation with high nitrogen fertilizers associated with the formation of dried soil layers in the semiarid farmland on the Loess Plateau

Wang, Linlin; Effah, Zechariah; Fudjoe, Setor Kwami; Xie, Junhong; Luo, Zhen; Cai, Liqun; Khan, Shahbaz; Xu, Weizhou; Chen, Yinglong

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.128324

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Spring maize (Zea mays L.) holds significant importance as one of the primary cereal crops cultivated in the semiarid regions of northwest China, particularly gaining prominence as the predominant crop in Gansu Province [1]. It plays a pivotal role in bolstering both provincial and national food security [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Deep Vertical Rotary Tillage on Soil Water Use and Yield Formation of Forage Maize on Semiarid Land

Fang,

Tan,

Hou

et al. 2024

Agriculture

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Forage maize is one of the most important feed crops for livestock production, and is mainly grown in northwest China. However, their growth is often stressed by limited soil water availability due to the arid climate. To provide more soil moisture, a high-efficiency tillage technique was required to make crops effectively use soil moisture in deep soil layers. Deep vertical rotary tillage is a promising choice for this purpose. In this study, a long-term (2020–2022) field experiment consisting of three treatments, i.e., traditional tillage (TT), deep rotary tillage (DT), and deep vertical rotary tillage (VRT), was carried out in semiarid areas of Loess Plateau, northwest China, to investigate the effects of VRT on soil water storage (SWS), phase crop evapotranspiration (ETc) during the pre- and post-flowering periods, dry matter accumulation, grain yields and the water use efficiency (WUE) of forage maize. The results showed that VRT significantly improved the absorption of soil moisture from deep layers, especially in dry years. During the pre-flowering period of a dry year (2020), VRT decreased SWS by 7.6%–10.0% in the 60–180 cm layer, and by 17.6%–18.5% in the 180–300 cm layer, respectively, compared to DT and TT. As a result, VRT increased ETc during the pre-flowering period by 6.1% and 9.2%, respectively. In wet years (2021 and 2022), VRT increased total ETc by 2.0%–7.9% in 2021, and by 10.1%–14.9% in 2022, respectively. On average, VRT increased the dry matter weight per plant by 1.0%–7.8%, grain yields by 2.4%–38.6%, biomass yields by 3.4%–16.2%, and WUE by 10.1%–30.0%, respectively. Particularly, the benefit of VRT for increasing yields and WUE was more noticeable in dry years. It can be concluded that VRT is a drought-tolerant and yield-boosting tillage technique that is suitable for rain-fed forage maize in semiarid areas of Loess Plateau, northwest China.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Deep Vertical Rotary Tillage on Soil Water Use and Yield Formation of Forage Maize on Semiarid Land

Fang,

Tan,

Hou

et al. 2024

Agriculture

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“…Numerous agricultural management techniques aimed at improving maize production in dryland regions have been extensively explored in recent decades, among which terrace construction, fertilizer application, and the use of plastic film mulch have emerged as the most successful approaches. Maize has become a dominant crop after the application of plastic film covering technology on the semiarid Loess Plateau because the projected yield potential of maize is much higher than other crops, such as wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing Maize Yield and Resource Efficiency through Controlled-Release Nitrogen Fertilization on the Semiarid Loess Plateau

Zhang,

Zhao,

Dang

et al. 2023

Agronomy

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Drought stress is one of the premier limitations to global agricultural production. Increasing water and nitrogen (N) use efficiencies in dryland agroecosystems to maintain high agricultural output are key responsibilities to assure food security, especially on the semiarid Loess Plateau region of China, as it is one of the important grain production areas in China. The impact of controlled-release urea (CRU) on the soil water content, soil enzyme activities, soil N content, biomass accumulation, grain yield, water use efficiency (WUE), and agronomic use efficiency of N fertilizer (AEN) were examined on the maize production of the rainfed Loess Plateau during 2020–2021. Two-growing-season field treatments at the Zhengyuan Agri-ecological Station, Qingyang, Gansu, including six N treatments, were investigated for maize: a control without N fertilization (CK) and five application proportions of CRU (i.e., 0, 30, 50, 70, and 100%CRU) under a N rate of 225 kg ha−1. Results showed that compared with common urea (0%CRU), on average, CRU applications significantly increased soil enzyme activity related to N conversion and improved biomass accumulation by 4–11% at the silking stage and by 2–12% at the maturity stage, respectively. As the proportion of CRU increased, the grain no. per ear, 100-grain weight, and harvest index first increased and then decreased. Grain yield was increased by 5.3, 11.4, 20.1, and 5.7% under 30, 50, 70 and 100%CRU, respectively, compared to common urea. Compared to common urea, 70%CRU combined with 30% common urea achieved the highest yield. These results indicate that optimal controlled-release N fertilization increases the yield and water and nitrogen use efficiencies of maize, and 70%CRU combined with 30% common urea under a single application of nitrogen fertilizer at sowing was the optimal application proportion of controlled-release urea for increasing water and nitrogen use efficiencies in dryland agroecosystems. The results of this study can provide a theoretical basis for the efficient fertilization of maize on the semiarid Loess Plateau of China.

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“…There are many excellent reviews promoting sustainable agricultural land management in the LP, which also provide valuable instruction for socioeconomic development. However, the existing studies paid much attention to traditional food crops (Tracy, 2020;Wang et al, 2022a;Wang et al, 2022b;Chen et al, 2022;Wu et al, 2022;Wang and Cheng, 2022), while cash crops still remained unclear. Consequently, it is necessary to explore the spatiotemporal dynamics of orchard expansion and its driving forces in order to propose optimizing strategies for orchard planting in the LP.…”

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confidence: 99%

Exploring the characteristics and driving forces of orchard expansion in ecological fragile region: A case study of three typical counties in the Loess Plateau

Gao

Wang

et al. 2023

Front. Environ. Sci.

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The Loess Plateau exemplifies the type of ecologically fragile region that faces severe poverty challenges in China. Orchards have expanded rapidly over the past few decades and now constitute a considerable part of local economy. Not only do the characteristics of orchard expansion affect local economic development, but also exert additional pressure on the ecological environment. Therefore, it is essential for sustainable development on the Loess Plateau to investigate the characteristics and driving forces of orchard expansion. The Fuxian, Luochuan, Huangling, three typical orchard planting counties were chosen as the study area. Firstly, the orchard was extracted from the land use/cover classification from 1990–2020. It broadens the research approach to the identification of expansion cash crops by using the combination of linear spectral mixture analysis (LSMA) and decision tree. Secondly, the spatiotemporal dynamics of orchard expansion were quantitatively investigated based on spatial geometry center shift, physical geographical features, landscape pattern and orchard planting suitability. Then, we constructed an evaluation indicators system to detect the feature importance and partial dependence of different factors by random forest regression. It is more innovative to employ the machine learning method to investigate driving forces. Finally, the linkages between planting suitability and orchard expansion were further discussed, and subsequent policies were proposed. Findings demonstrated the orchard had continuously expanded over the past 30 years, with the fastest expansion rate during 1990–2005. Increased cohesion was accompanied by a shift in the orchard’s spatial distribution to the north central region and highly suitable planting regions. Slope turned out to be the primary factor affecting the orchard expansion. In the future, regions with aging orchard but high planting suitability should be the preferred choice for orchard expansion. Additionally, the transportation connectivity and governmental assistance are crucial considerations for the future planning of the orchard.

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Continuous maize cultivation with high nitrogen fertilizers associated with the formation of dried soil layers in the semiarid farmland on the Loess Plateau

Cited by 7 publications

References 47 publications

Effects of Deep Vertical Rotary Tillage on Soil Water Use and Yield Formation of Forage Maize on Semiarid Land

Effects of Deep Vertical Rotary Tillage on Soil Water Use and Yield Formation of Forage Maize on Semiarid Land

Enhancing Maize Yield and Resource Efficiency through Controlled-Release Nitrogen Fertilization on the Semiarid Loess Plateau

Exploring the characteristics and driving forces of orchard expansion in ecological fragile region: A case study of three typical counties in the Loess Plateau

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