Water use efficiency and associated traits in winter wheat cultivars in the North China Plain

Selecting more water efficient cultivars is an important way to reduce water use in a water-scarce region. The objectives of this study were to measure the grain yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars to understand the genetic gains in yield and WUE and their associated physiological and agronomic traits in Hebei province, North China Plain (NCP). Two groups of winter wheat cultivars were tested. Group 1 included 16 winter wheat cultivars that were released between 1998 and 2002 and were tested during the 2002/2003 and 2003/2004 seasons under two water regimes. Group 2 included 10 cultivars released between 1970 and 2000, and were tested during the 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 seasons under three water regimes. Results showed that WUE increased substantially from 1.0-1.2 kg m⁻³ for cultivars from the early 1970s to 1.4-1.5 kg m⁻³ for recently released cultivars. There was also a variation in yield and WUE of about 20% among Group 1 cultivars. Most of the cultivars in both groups had similar responses to water supply. WUE was greater for less irrigated treatments and maximum grain production was achieved with moderate water deficit. The genetic gains in grain yield were associated with increasing in biomass, harvest index and kernel numbers per spike for cultivars released in different years. Among the Group 1 cultivars, the ones with higher yield generally had higher WUE. No significant correlations were found between WUE and physiological traits such as ash content, chlorophyll content, or relative water content among the cultivars released recently. However, a significant relationship was found between stomatal conductance or ash contents and WUE or grain yield among the Group 2 cultivars. Relationships were apparent between WUE and date of anthesis and harvest index (P < 0.05) in Group 1. Earlier flowering cultivars tended to have higher grain yield. In Group 2, flowering date was advancing by about 4 days over the 30 years of crop breeding. The positive relationship between grain yield and WUE for all the cultivars indicated that using a higher yielding cultivar has the potential to improve WUE and thereby to save water.     

Grain yield and water use efficiency of two types of winter wheat cultivars under different water regimes

To improve grain yields of winter wheat and water-use efficiency in the water-shortage region of the North China Plain (NCP), field experiments involving three irrigation levels and two types of winter-wheat cultivars (Shijiazhuang 8 and Xifeng 20, with moderate and strongly drought tolerance, respectively) were conducted over three growing seasons with different levels of precipitation. The results showed that irrigation significantly improved the grain yield of both wheat cultivars. The response of grain yield was largest in the dry year, followed by the normal and wet years. Shijiazhuang 8 responded more strongly than Xifeng 20. Compared to aboveground biomass under no irrigation treatment, the aboveground biomass of Shijiazhuang 8 and Xifeng 20 improved by 87.0% and 57.8%, respectively, in a dry year, by 27.2% and 18.3%, respectively, in a normal year, and by 13.7% and 11.7%, respectively, in a humid year when irrigation were applied twice. The total water use (TWU) of the two cultivars also increased upon irrigation. The increase was more pronounced in the dry year than in the normal or humid years. However, there were no significant differences in the TWUs of the two cultivars. The water-use efficiency at grain-yield level (WUE_y) of Shijiazhuang 8 increased significantly upon irrigation in the dry year, did not change in the normal year, and showed a clear decline in the humid year, while the WUE_y of Xifeng 20 was reduced by irrigation in each of the three growing seasons. The harvest index (HI) was not altered by irrigation but it did vary by growing season. The HI of Shijiazhuang 8 was always higher than that of Xifeng 20. A positive correlation was found between both the WUE_y and the water-use efficiency at the aboveground-biomass level (WUE_bm) and the HI. This suggests that the changes in WUE_y as a result of irrigation are mainly due to changes in the WUE_bm and that the differences in WUE_y between the two cultivars were due to differences in WUE_bm and HI. These results suggest the following. (1) The TWUs in the two cultivars were roughly equal, although their levels of drought tolerance differed. (2) A wheat cultivar with moderate drought tolerance is expected to be more suitable for the semi-arid region of the NCP. The variety with strongly drought tolerance was able to keep its biomass high and to maintain grain yield under serious drought stress. (3) In order to both increase grain yield and WUE_y, two irrigations in a dry year, one irrigation in a normal year, and no irrigation in a humid year will give optimal results in the studied region.     

高产高效冬小麦节水喷灌模式研究

采用田间试验和数学模拟相结合的方法研究了喷灌条件下冬小麦田间水分转化规律,以喷灌水量无效消耗（土面蒸发＋深层渗漏）最小为目标,提出了节水型合理喷灌定额为４０～６０ｍｍ。以此为基础,结合田间土壤墒情和麦田苗情,总结出高产高效冬小麦节水喷灌模式。经过两年度田间示范试验,取得了高产（６９３０ｋｇ／ｈａ）、高效（水分生产效率达２．４３ｋｇ／ｍ３）的效果     

Responses of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) evapotranspiration and yield to sprinkler irrigation regimes

The North China Plain (NCP) is one of the main productive regions for winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and summer maize (Zea mays L.) in China. However, water-saving irrigation technologies (WSITs), such as sprinkler irrigation technology and improved surface irrigation technology, and water management practices, such as irrigation scheduling have been adopted to improve field-level water use efficiency especially in winter wheat growing season, due to the water scarcity and continuous increase of water in industry and domestic life in the NCP. As one of the WSITs, sprinkler irrigation has been increasingly used in the NCP during the past 20 years. In this paper, a three-year field experiment was conducted to investigate the responses of volumetric soil water content (SWC), winter wheat yield, evapotranspiration (ET), water use efficiency (WUE) and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) to sprinkler irrigation regimes based on the evaporation from an uncovered, 20-cm diameter pan located 0-5 cm above the crop canopy in order to develop an appropriate sprinkler irrigation scheduling for winter wheat in the NCP. Results indicated that the temporal variations in SWC for irrigation treatments in the 0-60-cm soil layer were considerably larger than what occurred at deeper depths, whereas temporal variations in SWC for non-irrigation treatments were large throughout the 0-120-cm soil layer. Crop leaf area index, dry biomass, 1000-grains weight and yield were negatively affected by water stress for those treatments with irrigation depth less than 0.50E, where E is the net evaporation (which includes rainfall) from the 20-cm diameter pan. While irrigation with a depth over 1.0E also had negative effect on 1000-grains weight and yield. The seasonal ET of winter wheat was in a range of 206-499 mm during the three years experiments. Relatively high yield, WUE and IWUE were found for the irrigation depth of 0.63E. Therefore, for winter wheat in the NCP the recommended amount of irrigation to apply for each event is the total 0.63E that occurred after the previous irrigation provided total E is in a range of 30-40 mm.     

水分调控对麦茬棉产量和水分利用效率的影响

为研究麦后移栽棉对水分调控的响应,于2012年6月~2012年10月通过人工控水试验研究了水分供应对麦后移栽棉生长、产量和品质的影响。小区试验结果表明,蕾期轻度水分亏缺花铃期充分灌水处理(T2)的籽棉产量、成铃数以及单铃质量均为最大,但蕾期和花铃期轻度水分胁迫处理(T4)的产量与处理T2差异不显著,但水分利用效率和灌溉水利用效率分别提高了23.93%和34.01%;管栽试验结果表明,对照处理(T7)的单株成铃数的收获籽棉产量均最高,与对照处理相比,全生育期轻度水分胁迫处理(T8)减产3.98%,水分利用效率和灌溉水利用效率分别提高了9.70%和20.02%;桶栽试验结果表明,灌水定额为1.6倍ETp处理(T11)的籽棉产量和单株成铃数均最高,与处理T11相比,灌水定额为1.3ETp处理(T12)的籽棉产量仅降低了9.7%,而灌水定额为1.0 ETp处理(T13)的籽棉产量降低了30%。说明适宜的水分胁迫(灌水下限为60%~65%FC,灌水上限为80%~85%FC)有利于麦后移栽棉的高产和水分利用效率的提高。     

Effects of irrigation and planting patterns on radiation use efficiency and yield of winter wheat in North China

The factor limiting the increase in winter wheat yield was not the deficiency of light radiation but the low radiation use efficiency (RUE). In 2004-2005 and 2005-2006, an experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Station of Shandong Agricultural University to study the effects of irrigation and different planting patterns on the photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) capture ratio, PAR utilization, and winter wheat yield. In this experiment, winter wheat was planted in four patterns as follows: uniform row planting (U; row spacing, 30 cm), “20 + 40” wide-narrow row planting (W), “20 + 40” furrow planting (F), and “20 + 40” bed planting (B), which are very popular in North China. The results showed that under different irrigation regimes, there was no significant difference (less than 15.93%) between any of the planting patterns with respect to the amount of PAR intercepted by the winter wheat canopies. However, significant differences were observed between different planting patterns with respect to the amount of PAR intercepted by plants that were 60-80 cm above the ground surface (53.35-225.16%). This result was mainly due to the changes in the vertical distributions of leaf area index (LAI). As a result, the effects of the planting patterns on RUE and the winter wheat yield were due the vertical distribution of PAR in the winter wheat canopies. During the late winter wheat growing season, irrespective of the applied irrigation, the RUE in case of F was higher than that in case of U, W, and B by 0.05-0.09, 0.04-0.08, and 0.02-0.12 g/mol, respectively, and the yield was higher by 238.39-693.46, 160.02-685.96, and 308.98-699.06 kg/ha, respectively. Only under the fully irrigated conditions, the RUE and winter wheat yield significantly (LSD; P < 0.05) increased in case of B. This experiment showed that in North China, where the water shortage is the highest, application of planting pattern B should be restricted. Instead, F should be used in combination with deficit irrigation to increase the RUE and grain yield of winter wheat.     

Effects of elevated CO2 concentration,irrigation and nitrogenous fertilizer application on the growth and yield of spring wheat in semi-arid areas

In this paper, we discuss the effect of elevated CO₂ concentration, irrigation and nitrogenous fertilizer application on the growth and yield of spring wheat in semi-arid areas. A field experiment was conducted at the Dingxi Agricultural Experiment Station during 2000–2002. According to the experimental design, the CO₂ concentration increased to 14.5, 40 and 54.5 μmol mol⁻¹, respectively, by NH₄HCO₃ (involving CO₂) application, direct application of CO₂ gas and combination of fertilizer NH₄HCO₃ plus CO₂ application, which are equal to CO₂ concentration of the Earth's atmosphere in the next 5, 15 and 20 years. The fertilizer application was divided into three levels: application of NH₃NO₃ (250 kg h m⁻²), NH₄HCO₃ (500 kg h m⁻²) and no fertilizer. Irrigation was divided into two levels: with 90 mm irrigation in the growth period and without irrigation. They can be combined as eight treatments. Each treatment was replicated three times. The results showed that elevated CO₂ concentration owing to CO₂ application leads to remarkable increase in leaf area index (LAI) and shoot biomass, and also generates the higher value of leaf area duration (LAD) that can benefit the photosynthesis in the growth stage and yield increase in crop compared than the no CO₂ application treatment. When CO₂ concentration elevated by 14.5, 40 and 54.5 μmol mol⁻¹ with irrigation and fertilization, correspondingly, the grain yield increased by 6.3, 13.1 and 19.8%, respectively, whereas without irrigation and fertilization, the grain yield increased by only 4.2% when CO₂ concentration increased to 40 μmol mol⁻¹. Meanwhile, irrigation and fertilization can result in larger and deeper root system and have significantly positive influences on higher value of root/shoot (R/S) and water use efficiency. The grain yields in irrigation, irrigation plus NH₃NO₃ application and irrigation plus application of NH₄HCO₃ treatments are 73.4, 148.0 and 163.6% higher than that of no-irrigated and no-fertilized treatment, suggesting that both irrigation and fertilizer application contribute to remarkable increase of crop yield. In all treatments, the highest water use efficiency (WUE, 7.24 kg h m⁻² mm⁻¹) and grain yield (3286 kg h m⁻²) consistently occurred in the treatment with 90 mm irrigation plus fertilizer NH₄HCO₃ and elevated CO₂ concentration (54.5 μmol mol⁻¹), suggesting that this combination has an integrated beneficial effect on improving WUE and grain yield of spring wheat. These results may offer help to maintain and increase the crop yields in semi-arid areas.     

不同节水灌溉方式对小麦产量及水分利用效率的影响

为探讨不同节水灌溉方式对小麦产量及水分利用效率的影响,在通许试验基地进行了节水灌溉方式(滴灌、微喷灌、喷灌和小白龙)及灌水量(45、90、135mm)的大田试验,分别于拔节和灌浆前期灌水。结果表明:小麦收获时土壤储水量表现为滴灌微喷灌喷灌小白龙,总耗水量以滴灌和微喷灌方式下较少;小麦千粒重随灌水量增加有降低趋势,且在微喷灌方式下明显高于其他处理,而小麦群体、穗长、小穗数和穗粒数均以滴灌方式下表现较佳;灌水能增加小麦产量,水分利用效率随灌水量的增加而降低;以滴灌135 mm的产量最高,水分利用效率以滴灌45mm处理为最高。4种节水灌溉方式中,滴灌更有利于增产和节水,其次为微喷灌。     

近34年玛纳斯河流域棉花生长和耗水特征研究

利用1980—2013年北疆玛纳斯河流域乌兰乌苏农业气象站长期的农气观测实验资料,对3个典型棉花种植时期:裸地沟灌(NF,1980—1993年)、覆膜沟灌(MF,1994—2004年)以及膜下滴灌时期(MD,2005—2013年)的棉花生长和耗水特征进行对比研究。结果表明:在充分灌溉的条件下,棉花籽粒产量主要受温度影响,而蒸散量的变化与灌水量有关。近34年,该站棉花籽棉产量和棉田蒸散量均呈增加趋势,每年籽棉产量的增加率大于蒸散量的增加率,棉田水分利用效率(WUE)和灌溉水利用效率(IWUE)也随之呈增加趋势。MD时期的WUE和IWUE值最大,分别为(0.7±0.1)、(1.0±0.3)kg/m3,在我国和世界其他干旱、半干旱棉花产区均处于较高水平。     

基于DNDC模型的北京市大兴区冬小麦农业用水效率

为了阐明大兴区冬小麦农业用水效率时空变化趋势, 基于近10 a大兴区冬小麦产量统计值和遥感ET值, 构建了冬小麦脱氮-分解作用模型(DNDC模型), 验证了DNDC模型在区域冬小麦水分生产率方面的适用性.结果表明:点位模拟与验证中,冬小麦产量和ET值模拟效果较好,相对误差均小于4.20%,作物水分生产率WP点位模拟值分别为1.91和1.75 kg/m³.区域模拟与验证中,不同土壤区冬小麦产量及ET不尽相同,但总体趋势保持一致,产量随降雨量变化较大,2008年产量达到最大.2007-2016年产量统计平均值为5 227 kg/hm²,产量模拟平均值为4 845 kg/hm²;同期区域冬小麦ET模拟平均值为381.74 mm,遥感平均值为392.66 mm,产量和ET平均相对误差小于13%.2007-2016年WP模拟值为1.10~1.62 kg/m³,平均值为1.27 kg/m³,统计值为1.15~1.62 kg/m³,统计平均值为1.34 kg/m³.     

不同灌溉制度对冬小麦产量与水分利用效率的影响

以河北黑龙港地区常用冬小麦品种石麦15和济麦22为试验材料,研究了不同灌溉制度对冬小麦产量与水分利用效率的影响。结果表明,3种灌水处理下,石麦15的产量均高于济麦22。其中石麦15灌1水处理与济麦22灌2水处理产量相当,石麦15灌1水处理与济麦22灌3水处理产量相当,石麦15表现出节水高产的优势。石麦15灌2水处理的水分利用效率最高,达20.22 kg/(mm.hm2),比灌2水的济麦22高21.9%,比灌3水的济麦22高7.4%,说明石麦15灌2水处理在所有6个处理中表现最优。     

全覆盖条件下冬小麦田间水分运移的数值模拟

用数值模拟方法，研究了冬小麦在麦秸覆盖条件下田间水分运移规律，并与实测结果作了对比，结果表明，数值模拟计算的结果是可靠的。在此基础上对麦秸覆盖麦田的节水效应进行了分析，与不覆盖相比，可节水２７．６５％。     

Optimizing supplemental irrigation: Tradeoffs between profitability and sustainability

Water production functions are used to model yield response to various levels of supplemental irrigation (SI), to assess water productivity coefficients, and to identify optimum irrigation under various input-output price scenarios. The SI production function is taken as the difference between the total water production function (irrigation + rain) and that of rainwater. Theoretical analysis of the unconstrained objective function shows that the seasonal depth of SI to maximize profit occurs when the marginal product of water equals the ratio of unit water cost to unit product sale price. Applying this analysis to wheat in northern Syria, the production functions of SI under different rainfall conditions are developed. Coupled with current and projected water costs and wheat sale prices, the functions are used to develop an easy-to-use chart for determining seasonal irrigation rates to maximize profit under a range of seasonal rainfall amounts.Results show that, for a given seasonal rainfall, there is a critical value for the ratio of irrigation cost to production price beyond which SI becomes less profitable than rainfed production. Higher product prices and lower irrigation costs encourage the use of more water. Policies supporting high wheat prices and low irrigation costs encourage maximizing yields but with low water productivity. The resulting farmer practice threatens the sustainability of water resources. Balancing profitability versus sustainability is a challenge for policy makers. Our analysis can help national and local water authorities and policy makers determine appropriate policies for water valuation and allocation; and assist extension services and farmers in planning irrigation infrastructure and farm water management.     

秸秆还田对农田土壤水分与冬小麦耗水特征的影响

通过2年田间试验,对比研究了秸秆经粉碎、氨化处理后施入土壤对农田0~100 cm土壤水分动态、冬小麦耗水特征、水分利用效率(WUE)及降雨利用效率(PUE)的影响。结果表明,连续2年冬小麦生育期0~100 cm土壤贮水量变化趋势基本一致;氨化秸秆连续2年还田能显著提高成熟期0~100 cm土壤贮水量,较秸秆覆盖分别提高4.95%和1.82%(P0.05),较未氨化秸秆还田分别提高4.24%和1.75%(P0.05)。此外,秸秆覆盖较秸秆翻压还田措施能有效降低冬小麦生育期内总耗水量;氨化秸秆施入土壤后较未氨化秸秆能显著降低冬小麦总耗水量,作用效果主要体现在冬小麦生长后期。粉碎并氨化秸秆连续2年还田能显著提高冬小麦籽粒产量,较秸秆覆盖还田分别提高9.07%和11.42%(P0.05),并显著提高冬小麦WUE和PUE。