Maize Evapotranspiration and Water‐Use Efficiency in Response to Row Spacing

Barbieri, Pablo; Echarte, Laura; Maggiora, A. Della; Sadras, Víctor O.; Echeverría, Hernán Eduardo; Andrade, Fernando H.

doi:10.2134/agronj2012.0014

Cited by 69 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Second, the soil water content at sowing was generally greater in the T3 treatment than in the T2 treatment (Fig. 2) due to film mulching for the non‐growth season, and the ET was positively correlated with the soil water supply during the growth season (Barbieri et al, 2012; Zhang et al, 2013). This soil water content difference could also explain why the ET of each treatment in 2012 was higher than that in 2010 and 2011 and why the ET of the T4 treatment was higher than that in the other three treatments in 2011 (Table 4).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimizing Plant Density and Plastic Film Mulch to Increase Maize Productivity and Water‐Use Efficiency in Semiarid Areas

Liu

Zhu

et al. 2014

Agronomy Journal

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Increasing crop productivity in semiarid areas is essential for ensuring future food security. We hypothesized that crop yield could be increased by using plastic film mulching to reduce evaporation and increase plant density. A 3-yr field experiment was conducted on the Loess Plateau of China to evaluate the effects of soil temperature and water content on maize (Zea mays L.) grain yield (GY) and water-use efficiency (WUE). Film mulching promoted maize growth and development by increasing the soil temperature and water content, particularly during the early growth season. At harvest, the mulched treatments had higher kernel numbers per ear (KN) and greater 1000-kernel weight (KW) than non-mulched treatment. Furthermore, mulching allowed the optimum plant population to be increased from 65,000 to 85,000 plants ha -1 . Compared with mulching for the entire growing season, removing the film at the silking stage decreased the plant senescence rate and slightly increased the final KN and KW, thus further increasing the GY by 0.6 to 1.2 Mg ha -1 . Although the WUE showed no significant difference among the three mulched treatments (34.0-47.2 kg ha -1 mm -1 ), these values were markedly higher than that in the non-mulched treatment (20.3-29.6 kg ha -1 mm -1 ). We conclude that film mulching together with increased plant density can increase semiarid maize yields and water-use efficiency.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimizing Plant Density and Plastic Film Mulch to Increase Maize Productivity and Water‐Use Efficiency in Semiarid Areas

Liu

Zhu

et al. 2014

Agronomy Journal

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“…Overall, WUE was lower in treatments with wider row spacing. Barbieri et al (2012) found a higher yield of maize when reducing row spacing from 70 to 35 cm. Narrower rows increased early season evapotranspiration and overall water-use efficiency.…”

Section: Reduced Stand Densitymentioning

confidence: 91%

Management of crop water under drought: a review

Bodner

Nakhforoosh

Kaul

2015

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

431

234

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Drought is a predominant cause of low yields worldwide. There is an urgent need for more water efficient cropping systems facing large water consumption of irrigated agriculture and high unproductive losses via runoff and evaporation. Identification of yield-limiting constraints in the plant-soil-atmosphere continuum are the key to improved management of plant water stress. Crop ecology provides a systematic approach for this purpose integrating soil hydrology and plant physiology into the context of crop production. We review main climate, soil and plant properties and processes that determine yield in different water-limited environments. From this analysis, management measures for cropping systems under specific drought conditions are derived. Major findings from literature analysis are as follows. (1) Unproductive water losses such as evaporation and runoff increase from continental in-season rainfall climates to storage-dependent winter rainfall climates. Highest losses occur under tropical residual moisture regimes with short intense rainy season. (2) Sites with a climatic dry season require adaptation via phenology and water saving to ensure stable yields. Intermittent droughts can be buffered via the root system, which is still largely underutilised for better stress resistance. (3) At short-term better management options such as mulching and date of seeding allow to adjust cropping systems to site constraints. Adapted cultivars can improve the synchronisation between crop water demand and soil supply. At long term, soil hydraulic and plant physiological constraints can be overcome by changing tillage systems and breeding new varieties with higher stress resistance. (4) Interactions between plant and soil, particularly in the rhizosphere, are a way towards better crop water supply. Targeted management of such plant-soil interactions is still at infancy.We conclude that understanding site-specific stress hydrology is imperative to select the most efficient measures to mitigate stress. Major progress in future can be expected from crop ecology focussing on the management of complex plant (root)-soil interactions.

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“…As well, at Swift Current, evapotranspiration by pulses and spring wheat are independent of stubble height (Cutforth and McConkey, 1997;Cutforth et al, 2002Cutforth et al, , 2011. In addition, others have found row spacing had a limited effect on crop water uptake (Chen et al, 2010;Barbieri et al, 2012). No significant interactions of row spacing and stubble height on WU were observed.…”

Section: Locationmentioning

confidence: 91%