IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v11y2022i9p1514-d910209.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Modelling of Water and Nitrogen Flow in a Rain-Fed Ridge-Furrow Maize System with Plastic Mulch

Author

Listed:
  • Wei Zhu

    (Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and the Agri-Environment in Northwest China, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
    College of Civil and Architecture Engineering, Chuzhou University, Chuzhou 239000, China)

  • Ruiquan Qiao

    (Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and the Agri-Environment in Northwest China, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China)

  • Rui Jiang

    (Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and the Agri-Environment in Northwest China, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China)

Abstract

Soil water and nitrogen are two important factors in the agro-ecosystem of the Loess Plateau, China. The ridge-furrow maize system with plastic mulch (RFPM) is a widely used measure to increase crop yield in the Loess Plateau area. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the RFPM on soil water and inorganic nitrogen (N) distribution, especially with regard to the risk and dynamic of nitrogen losses, by using Hydrus-2D. The study was conducted over two consecutive years and consisted of two treatments: (i) the RFPM with the split application of nitrogen in 2013 (160 + 60 kg N ha −1 , sowing and jointing stage) and (ii) the RFPM with a one-time fertilizer in 2014 (220 kg N ha −1 , sowing stage). The results showed that the dynamic of soil water and nitrogen was clearly illustrated by Hydrus-2D, especially with regard to the nitrogen losses and utilization. The RFPM improved soil water consumption in both the ridge and the furrow; the soil water content was obviously fluctuating during the maize growing season, and the degree of fluctuation decreased as the depth increased. The soil N H 4 + -N concentration was mainly accumulated in the surface soil layer +15–10 cm; the highest N H 4 + -N concentrations were 69.12 and 104.62 mg·kg −1 in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The highest N O 3 − -N concentrations were 130.86 and 198.20 mg·kg −1 in 2013 and 2014, respectively. There was an exchange of N O 3 − -N between the ridge and the furrow when urea was applied in the furrow. The one-time fertilizer caused a high risk of NH 3 volatilization; they were 20.40 and 27.41 kg N ha −1 in 2013 and 2014, respectively, which accounted for 9.27% and 12.46% of the N fertilizer inputs in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The rate of nitrite leaching was higher in the furrow than the ridge. However, a proper ratio of the split application of nitrogen would contribute to the N O 3 − -N leaching reduction; the N O 3 − -N leaching amounts were 18.13 and 31.26 kg N ha −1 , which accounted for 8.24% and 14.21% of the N fertilizer inputs in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Our study indicates, therefore, that the RFPM with a split application of nitrogen would be more effective for the nitrogen losses; the RFPM is a suitable system for agriculture in the rain-fed area of the Loess Plateau, with the benefits of water-use efficiency and non-point source pollution reduction.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei Zhu & Ruiquan Qiao & Rui Jiang, 2022. "Modelling of Water and Nitrogen Flow in a Rain-Fed Ridge-Furrow Maize System with Plastic Mulch," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-18, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:9:p:1514-:d:910209
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/9/1514/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/9/1514/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dong, Qiang & Dang, Tinghui & Guo, Shengli & Hao, Mingde, 2019. "Effects of mulching measures on soil moisture and N leaching potential in a spring maize planting system in the southern Loess Plateau," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 803-808.
    2. Dong, Qin’ge & Yang, Yuchen & Yu, Kun & Feng, Hao, 2018. "Effects of straw mulching and plastic film mulching on improving soil organic carbon and nitrogen fractions, crop yield and water use efficiency in the Loess Plateau, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 133-143.
    3. Siyal, A.A. & Skaggs, T.H., 2009. "Measured and simulated soil wetting patterns under porous clay pipe sub-surface irrigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(6), pages 893-904, June.
    4. Libutti, Angela & Monteleone, Massimo, 2017. "Soil vs. groundwater: The quality dilemma. Managing nitrogen leaching and salinity control under irrigated agriculture in Mediterranean conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 40-50.
    5. Kandelous, Maziar M. & Kamai, Tamir & Vrugt, Jasper A. & Šimůnek, Jiří & Hanson, Blaine & Hopmans, Jan W., 2012. "Evaluation of subsurface drip irrigation design and management parameters for alfalfa," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 81-93.
    6. Iqbal, Shahid & Guber, Andrey K. & Khan, Haroon Zaman, 2016. "Estimating nitrogen leaching losses after compost application in furrow irrigated soils of Pakistan using HYDRUS-2D software," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 85-95.
    7. Šimůnek, Jiří & Hopmans, Jan W., 2009. "Modeling compensated root water and nutrient uptake," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(4), pages 505-521.
    8. Guo, Yanjie & Ji, Yanzhi & Zhang, Jie & Liu, Qiao & Han, Jian & Zhang, Lijuan, 2022. "Effects of water and nitrogen management on N2O emissions and NH3 volatilization from a vineyard in North China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    9. Ma, Dedi & Chen, Lei & Qu, Hongchao & Wang, Yilin & Misselbrook, Tom & Jiang, Rui, 2018. "Impacts of plastic film mulching on crop yields, soil water, nitrate, and organic carbon in Northwestern China: A meta-analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 166-173.
    10. Li, S.X. & Wang, Z.H. & Li, S.Q. & Gao, Y.J. & Tian, X.H., 2013. "Effect of plastic sheet mulch, wheat straw mulch, and maize growth on water loss by evaporation in dryland areas of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 39-49.
    11. Zhao, Ying & Zhai, Xiafei & Wang, Zhaohui & Li, Huijie & Jiang, Rui & Lee Hill, Robert & Si, Bing & Hao, Feng, 2018. "Simulation of soil water and heat flow in ridge cultivation with plastic film mulching system on the Chinese Loess Plateau," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 99-112.
    12. Liu, Wenzhao & Zhang, X.-C. & Dang, Tinghui & Ouyang, Zhu & Li, Zhi & Wang, Jun & Wang, Rui & Gao, Changqing, 2010. "Soil water dynamics and deep soil recharge in a record wet year in the southern Loess Plateau of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(8), pages 1133-1138, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Feng, Yu & Hao, Weiping & Gao, Lili & Li, Haoru & Gong, Daozhi & Cui, Ningbo, 2019. "Comparison of maize water consumption at different scales between mulched and non-mulched croplands," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 315-324.
    2. Jovanovic, N. & Pereira, L.S. & Paredes, P. & Pôças, I. & Cantore, V. & Todorovic, M., 2020. "A review of strategies, methods and technologies to reduce non-beneficial consumptive water use on farms considering the FAO56 methods," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    3. Pizarro, E. & Galleguillos, M. & Barría, P. & Callejas, R., 2022. "Irrigation management or climate change ? Which is more important to cope with water shortage in the production of table grape in a Mediterranean context," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    4. Yang, Meijian & Wang, Guiling & Lazin, Rehenuma & Shen, Xinyi & Anagnostou, Emmanouil, 2021. "Impact of planting time soil moisture on cereal crop yield in the Upper Blue Nile Basin: A novel insight towards agricultural water management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    5. Saefuddin, Reskiana & Saito, Hirotaka & Šimůnek, Jiří, 2019. "Experimental and numerical evaluation of a ring-shaped emitter for subsurface irrigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 111-122.
    6. Thidar, Myint & Gong, Daozhi & Mei, Xurong & Gao, Lili & Li, Haoru & Hao, Weiping & Gu, Fengxue, 2020. "Mulching improved soil water, root distribution and yield of maize in the Loess Plateau of Northwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    7. Fu, Wei & Fan, Jun & Hao, Mingde & Hu, Jinsheng & Wang, Huan, 2021. "Evaluating the effects of plastic film mulching patterns on cultivation of winter wheat in a dryland cropping system on the Loess Plateau, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    8. Li, Huijie & Ma, Xiaojun & Lu, Yanwei & Ren, Ruiqi & Cui, Buli & Si, Bingcheng, 2021. "Growing deep roots has opposing impacts on the transpiration of apple trees planted in subhumid loess region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    9. Chaobiao Meng & Jianyu Zhao & Ning Wang & Kaijing Yang & Fengxin Wang, 2022. "Black Plastic Film Mulching Increases Soil Nitrous Oxide Emissions in Arid Potato Fields," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-12, November.
    10. Wang, Jun & Ghimire, Rajan & Fu, Xin & Sainju, Upendra M. & Liu, Wenzhao, 2018. "Straw mulching increases precipitation storage rather than water use efficiency and dryland winter wheat yield," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 95-101.
    11. Gao, Haihe & Yan, Changrong & Liu, Qin & Li, Zhen & Yang, Xiao & Qi, Ruimin, 2019. "Exploring optimal soil mulching to enhance yield and water use efficiency in maize cropping in China: A meta-analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    12. Minhas, P.S. & Ramos, Tiago B. & Ben-Gal, Alon & Pereira, Luis S., 2020. "Coping with salinity in irrigated agriculture: Crop evapotranspiration and water management issues," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    13. Ruofan Li & Juanjuan Ma & Xihuan Sun & Xianghong Guo & Lijian Zheng, 2021. "Simulation of Soil Water and Heat Flow under Plastic Mulching and Different Ridge Patterns," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-20, November.
    14. Zhang, Runze & Lei, Tong & Wang, Yunfeng & Xu, Jiaxing & Zhang, Panxin & Han, Yan & Hu, Changlu & Yang, Xueyun & Sadras, Victor & Zhang, Shulan, 2022. "Responses of yield and water use efficiency to the interaction between water supply and plastic film mulch in winter wheat-summer fallow system," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    15. Li, Yue & Feng, Hao & Wu, Wenjie & Jiang, Yu & Sun, Jian & Zhang, Yuefang & Cheng, Hui & Li, Cheng & Dong, Qin’ge & Siddique, Kadambot H.M. & Chen, Ji, 2022. "Decreased greenhouse gas intensity of winter wheat production under plastic film mulching in semi-arid areas," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 274(C).
    16. Dong, Qiang & Dang, Tinghui & Guo, Shengli & Hao, Mingde, 2019. "Effects of mulching measures on soil moisture and N leaching potential in a spring maize planting system in the southern Loess Plateau," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 803-808.
    17. Che, Zheng & Wang, Jun & Li, Jiusheng, 2022. "Modeling strategies to balance salt leaching and nitrogen loss for drip irrigation with saline water in arid regions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 274(C).
    18. Jiang, Rui & Li, Xiao & Zhu, Wei & Wang, Kun & Guo, Sheng & Misselbrook, Tom & Hatano, Ryusuke, 2018. "Effects of the ridge mulched system on soil water and inorganic nitrogen distribution in the Loess Plateau of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 277-288.
    19. Fang, Heng & Li, Yuannong & Gu, Xiaobo & Li, Yupeng & Chen, Pengpeng, 2021. "Can ridge-furrow with film and straw mulching improve wheat-maize system productivity and maintain soil fertility on the Loess Plateau of China?," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    20. Albasha, Rami & Mailhol, Jean-Claude & Cheviron, Bruno, 2015. "Compensatory uptake functions in empirical macroscopic root water uptake models – Experimental and numerical analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 22-39.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:9:p:1514-:d:910209. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.