Modelling soil water dynamic in rain-fed spring maize field with plastic mulching

Abstract

a b s t r a c tNumerical solution of the Richards equation with Hydrus-2D model is a low cost and fast way to get information on spatio-temporal soil water dynamics. Previous researches with Hydrus-2D have developed two different approaches to represent the rainfall infiltration in irrigated field with plastic mulching: 'BP' -an approach comprised by bare strip boundary and plastic strip boundary without consideration of film side infiltration;'BP + '-an approach comprised by bare strip and plastic strip with integrating the process of film side infiltration by increasing the rainfall infiltration amount in bare strip. Nevertheless, the performance of these approaches has not yet been evaluated in rain-fed fields. Considering much more dominant role of rainfall infiltration in rain-fed agriculture, we tested an additional approach which comprised a bare strip, plastic strip and planting hole (BPH) to take into account the effect of the rainfall canopy redistribution and film side infiltration, and we compared its performance to the two existing approaches. Results suggested BP completely failed to reproduce the soil water content (SWC) in all soil layers of plastic strip and in the deep soil layers of bare strip. BP+ overestimated the SWC in 0-20 cm of the bare strip, while the performance of BPH was acceptable in different positions. After that, we compared the soil water distribution between no-mulched field (NM) and plastic mulched field (PM) with approach BPH. Our simulation showed that the highest SWC in PM occurred near the planting hole, SWC in the center zone of plastic strip was lower, while SWC in the bare strip was lowest. PM improves the soil water availability not only in the plastic strip but also in the bare strip as compared to NM.

Mulching as water-saving technique in dryland agriculture: review article

“…Mulch is also more esthetically pleasant as it creates a uniform look all over the landscape. The soil is a complex ecosystem, where the soil water is affected by many factors like crop, water absorption, soil and plant water evaporation, and infiltration of rainfall (Li et al 2013;Chen et al 2018). Moreover, the suitability of soil moisture and temperature for crops is changing in different growing stages.…”

“…Agriculture is the largest water consumer in the world which accounts for 70% of total use (Qin et al 2018). Among them, 80% of worldwide cropland is covered by rain-fed (non-irrigated) that produces 60-70% of the world's food (Chen et al 2018). Considering the growing water shortage, rain-fed cultivation plays a prime interest in the worldwide food supply (Sun et al 2012;Li et al 2017).…”

Mulching Techniques to Conserve the Soil Water and Advance the Crop Production - A Review

“…Consequently, it supports in keeping the nutrient around the root of plant for effective use of nutrient and also helps in reduction of leaching of fertilizer. The uniformity in look all over the mulched landscape are more appealingly (Li et al, 2013;Chen et al, 2018). Furthermore, in the different stages of growth of crops there is a viable changing in the appropriateness of soil moisture and temperature.…”

“…Agriculture sector consumes the highest quantity of water in the world around 70% of total usage (Qin et al, 2018). In which, 80% of global cropland is covered by nonirrigated (rain-fed) that contributes 60-70% of the world's food production (Chen et al, 2018). Bearing in mind the rising water scarcity, rain-fed cultivation plays a vital role in the global food supply (Sun et al, 2012;Li et al, 2017).…”

HYDRUS-1D Simulation of Nitrogen Dynamics in Rainfed Sweet Corn Production

“…According to Zhou, et al [30] the 95% of maize roots distribute in the top 60 cm. Chen, et al [31] considered root zone depth as 70 cm. Root uptake was assumed to be passive for both NH4 + -N and NO3 − -N [22,27].…”