IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v253y2021ics0378377421002018.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

By increasing infiltration and reducing evaporation, mulching can improve the soil water environment and apple yield of orchards in semiarid areas

Author

Listed:
  • Liao, Yang
  • Cao, Hong-Xia
  • Liu, Xing
  • Li, Huang-Tao
  • Hu, Qing-Yang
  • Xue, Wen-Kai

Abstract

Infiltration and evaporation are two important components of soil water balance in semiarid areas. For local orchards using drip irrigation, rainfall and irrigation events have a profound impact on soil infiltration and evaporation. As an effective water conservation technique, soil surface mulching is widely used in semiarid areas. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of mulching (e.g., horticultural fabric mulching and corn straw mulching) on soil infiltration and evaporation after irrigation and rainfall. Through field experiments, we investigated soil infiltration and evaporation during three wet-dry cycles and for a rainy month and studied the effects of mulching on soil physical properties and apple yields. The results showed that both horticultural fabric mulching (FM) and straw mulching (SM) improved soil physical properties by reducing soil bulk density and increasing porosity and that SM had a better effect. Mulching increased infiltration after irrigation and heavy rain, while SM reduced infiltration when light rain occurred. Regardless of whether the soil was in the energy-limited stage or falling-rate stage, mulching can effectively reduce soil evaporation. We determined that the threshold of soil water content (SWC) between the energy-limited stage and falling-rate stage was 22.09–22.75%. When SWC is lower than the threshold, there is a positive significant correlation between evaporation and SWC, while no significant correlation was found when it is above the threshold. Moreover, mulching effectively increased apple yields and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) for three consecutive years. Therefore, both FM and SM have potential for application in orchards in semiarid areas to improve soil and moisture conditions in the root zone.

Suggested Citation

  • Liao, Yang & Cao, Hong-Xia & Liu, Xing & Li, Huang-Tao & Hu, Qing-Yang & Xue, Wen-Kai, 2021. "By increasing infiltration and reducing evaporation, mulching can improve the soil water environment and apple yield of orchards in semiarid areas," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:253:y:2021:i:c:s0378377421002018
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2021.106936
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377421002018
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2021.106936?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wang, Hong & Wang, Chenbing & Zhao, Xiumei & Wang, Falin, 2015. "Mulching increases water-use efficiency of peach production on the rainfed semiarid Loess Plateau of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 20-28.
    2. Dai, Zhiguang & Fei, Liangjun & Huang, Deliang & Zeng, Jian & Chen, Lin & Cai, Yaohui, 2019. "Coupling effects of irrigation and nitrogen levels on yield, water and nitrogen use efficiency of surge-root irrigated jujube in a semiarid region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 146-154.
    3. Du, Shaoqing & Kang, Shaozhong & Li, Fusheng & Du, Taisheng, 2017. "Water use efficiency is improved by alternate partial root-zone irrigation of apple in arid northwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 184-192.
    4. Abd El-Wahed, M.H. & Ali, E.A., 2013. "Effect of irrigation systems, amounts of irrigation water and mulching on corn yield, water use efficiency and net profit," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 64-71.
    5. Liu, Y. & Tao, Y. & Wan, K.Y. & Zhang, G.S. & Liu, D.B. & Xiong, G.Y. & Chen, F., 2012. "Runoff and nutrient losses in citrus orchards on sloping land subjected to different surface mulching practices in the Danjiangkou Reservoir area of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 34-40.
    6. Wang, Yajun & Xie, Zhongkui & Malhi, Sukhdev S. & Vera, Cecil L. & Zhang, Yubao & Wang, Jinniu, 2009. "Effects of rainfall harvesting and mulching technologies on water use efficiency and crop yield in the semi-arid Loess Plateau, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(3), pages 374-382, March.
    7. Zhong, Yun & Fei, Liangjun & Li, Yibo & Zeng, Jian & Dai, Zhiguang, 2019. "Response of fruit yield, fruit quality, and water use efficiency to water deficits for apple trees under surge-root irrigation in the Loess Plateau of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 221-230.
    8. Yang, Jian & Mao, Xiaomin & Wang, Kai & Yang, Weicai, 2018. "The coupled impact of plastic film mulching and deficit irrigation on soil water/heat transfer and water use efficiency of spring wheat in Northwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 232-245.
    9. Liao, Yang & Cao, Hong-Xia & Xue, Wen-Kai & Liu, Xing, 2021. "Effects of the combination of mulching and deficit irrigation on the soil water and heat, growth and productivity of apples," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    10. Zhang, Qingtao & Wang, Shiping & Li, Li & Inoue, Mitsuhiro & Xiang, Jiao & Qiu, Guoyu & Jin, Wenbiao, 2014. "Effects of mulching and sub-surface irrigation on vine growth, berry sugar content and water use of grapevines," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 1-8.
    11. Chakraborty, Debashis & Nagarajan, Shantha & Aggarwal, Pramila & Gupta, V.K. & Tomar, R.K. & Garg, R.N. & Sahoo, R.N. & Sarkar, A. & Chopra, U.K. & Sarma, K.S. Sundara & Kalra, N., 2008. "Effect of mulching on soil and plant water status, and the growth and yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in a semi-arid environment," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(12), pages 1323-1334, December.
    12. Song, Xiaolin & Wu, Pute & Gao, Xiaodong & Yao, Jie & Zou, Yufeng & Zhao, Xining & Siddique, Kadambot H.M. & Hu, Wei, 2020. "Rainwater collection and infiltration (RWCI) systems promote deep soil water and organic carbon restoration in water-limited sloping orchards," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    13. Rashid, Muhammad Adil & Zhang, Xiying & Andersen, Mathias Neumann & Olesen, Jørgen Eivind, 2019. "Can mulching of maize straw complement deficit irrigation to improve water use efficiency and productivity of winter wheat in North China Plain?," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 1-11.
    14. Balwinder-Singh & Eberbach, P.L. & Humphreys, E. & Kukal, S.S., 2011. "The effect of rice straw mulch on evapotranspiration, transpiration and soil evaporation of irrigated wheat in Punjab, India," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(12), pages 1847-1855, October.
    15. Sokalska, D.I. & Haman, D.Z. & Szewczuk, A. & Sobota, J. & Deren, D., 2009. "Spatial root distribution of mature apple trees under drip irrigation system," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(6), pages 917-924, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zheng, Jing & Fan, Junliang & Zhou, Minghua & Zhang, Fucang & Liao, Zhenqi & Lai, Zhenlin & Yan, Shicheng & Guo, Jinjin & Li, Zhijun & Xiang, Youzhen, 2022. "Ridge-furrow plastic film mulching enhances grain yield and yield stability of rainfed maize by improving resources capture and use efficiency in a semi-humid drought-prone region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    2. Tadayon, Mohammad Saeed & Hosseini, Seyed Mashaallah, 2022. "Shade net and mulching measures for improving soil and plant water status of fig trees under rainfed conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 271(C).
    3. Li, Wenlong & Gu, Xiaobo & Du, Yadan & Zheng, Xiaobo & Lu, Shiyu & Cheng, Zhikai & Cai, Wenjing & Chang, Tian, 2023. "Optimizing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilization regimes to improve maize productivity under double ridge-furrow planting with full film mulching," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    4. Sun, Liquan & Zhang, Biao & Yin, Ziming & Guo, Huili & Siddique, Kadambot H.M. & Wu, Shufang & Yang, Jiangtao, 2022. "Assessing the performance of conservation measures for controlling slope runoff and erosion using field scouring experiments," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    5. Zhao, Jiarui & Liu, Zhanjun & Zhai, Bingnian & Jin, Hui & Xu, Xinpeng & Zhu, Yuanjun, 2023. "Long-term changes in soil chemical properties with cropland-to-orchard conversion on the Loess Plateau, China: Regulatory factors and relations with apple yield," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    6. Thongsouk Sompouviset & Yanting Ma & Eakkarin Sukkaew & Zhaoxia Zheng & Ai Zhang & Wei Zheng & Ziyan Li & Bingnian Zhai, 2023. "The Effects of Plastic Mulching Combined with Different Fertilizer Applications on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Intensity, and Apple Yield in Northwestern China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-23, June.
    7. Di Wang, & Wang, Li, 2023. "Characteristics of soil evaporation at two stages of growth in apple orchards with different ages in a semi-humid region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    8. Zhang, Binbin & Su, Shunshun & Duan, Chenxiao & Feng, Hao & Chau, Henry Wai & He, Jianqiang & Li, Yi & Hill, Robert Lee & Wu, Shufang & Zou, Yufeng, 2022. "Effects of partial organic fertilizer replacement combined with rainwater collection system on soil water, nitrate-nitrogen and apple yield of rainfed apple orchard in the Loess Plateau of China: A 3-," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    9. Liu, Ziqi & Li, Kaiping & Xiong, Kangning & Li, Yuan & Wang, Jin & Sun, Jian & Cai, Lulu, 2021. "Effects of Zanthoxylum bungeanum planting on soil hydraulic properties and soil moisture in a karst area," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    10. Zemin Zhang & Zhanyu Zhang & Genxiang Feng & Peirong Lu & Mingyi Huang & Xinyu Zhao, 2022. "Biochar Amendment Combined with Straw Mulching Increases Winter Wheat Yield by Optimizing Soil Water-Salt Condition under Saline Irrigation," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-16, October.
    11. Zhang, Binbin & Yan, Sihui & Li, Bin & Wu, Shufang & Feng, Hao & Gao, Xiaodong & Song, Xiaolin & Siddique, Kadambot H.M., 2023. "Combining organic and chemical fertilizer plus water-saving system reduces environmental impacts and improves apple yield in rainfed apple orchards," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    12. Linlin Ye & Yuanxiao Xu & Guofeng Zhu & Wenhao Zhang & Yinying Jiao, 2023. "Effects of Different Mulch Types on Farmland Soil Moisture in an Artificial Oasis Area," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, December.
    13. Xianglong Fan & Pan Gao & Li Zuo & Long Duan & Hao Cang & Mengli Zhang & Qiang Zhang & Ze Zhang & Xin Lv & Lifu Zhang, 2023. "Soil Quality Evaluation for Cotton Fields in Arid Region Based on Graph Convolution Network," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-18, October.

    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. Liao, Yang & Cao, Hong-Xia & Xue, Wen-Kai & Liu, Xing, 2021. "Effects of the combination of mulching and deficit irrigation on the soil water and heat, growth and productivity of apples," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    2. Wang, Cheng & Bai, Dan & Li, Yibo & Yao, Baolin & Feng, Yaqin, 2021. "The comparison of different irrigation methods on yield and water use efficiency of the jujube," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
    3. Chai, Yuwei & Chai, Qiang & Yang, Changgang & Chen, Yuzhang & Li, Rui & Li, Yawei & Chang, Lei & Lan, Xuemei & Cheng, Hongbo & Chai, Shouxi, 2022. "Plastic film mulching increases yield, water productivity, and net income of rain-fed winter wheat compared with no mulching in semiarid Northwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    4. Guo, Fu-Xing & Wang, Yan-Ping & Hou, Ting-Ting & Zhang, Lin-Sen & Mu, Yan & Wu, Fu-yong, 2021. "Variation of soil moisture and fine roots distribution adopts rainwater collection, infiltration promoting and soil anti-seepage system (RCIP-SA) in hilly apple orchard on the Loess Plateau of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    5. He, Zijian & Hu, Qingyang & Zhang, Yi & Cao, Hongxia & Nan, Xueping, 2023. "Effects of irrigation and nitrogen management strategies on soil nitrogen and apple yields in loess plateau of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    6. Abdul Waheed & Chuang Li & Murad Muhammad & Mushtaq Ahmad & Khalid Ali Khan & Hamed A. Ghramh & Zhongwei Wang & Daoyuan Zhang, 2023. "Sustainable Potato Growth under Straw Mulching Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-16, July.
    7. 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).
    8. Kader, M.A. & Nakamura, K. & Senge, M. & Mojid, M.A. & Kawashima, S., 2019. "Soil hydro-thermal regimes and water use efficiency of rain-fed soybean (Glycine max) as affected by organic mulches," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 1-1.
    9. Abd El-Mageed, Taia A. & El- Samnoudi, Ibrahim M. & Ibrahim, Abd El-Aty M. & Abd El Tawwab, Ahmed R., 2018. "Compost and mulching modulates morphological, physiological responses and water use efficiency in sorghum (bicolor L. Moench) under low moisture regime," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 431-439.
    10. Zhang, Binbin & Su, Shunshun & Duan, Chenxiao & Feng, Hao & Chau, Henry Wai & He, Jianqiang & Li, Yi & Hill, Robert Lee & Wu, Shufang & Zou, Yufeng, 2022. "Effects of partial organic fertilizer replacement combined with rainwater collection system on soil water, nitrate-nitrogen and apple yield of rainfed apple orchard in the Loess Plateau of China: A 3-," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    11. Mukherjee, A. & Sarkar, S. & Chakraborty, P.K., 2012. "Marginal analysis of water productivity function of tomato crop grown under different irrigation regimes and mulch managements," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 121-127.
    12. 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.
    13. Liyuan Bo & Xiaomin Mao & Yali Wang, 2022. "Assessing the Applicability of Biodegradable Film Mulching in Northwest China Based on Comprehensive Benefits Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-23, August.
    14. Zhang, Binbin & Yan, Sihui & Li, Bin & Wu, Shufang & Feng, Hao & Gao, Xiaodong & Song, Xiaolin & Siddique, Kadambot H.M., 2023. "Combining organic and chemical fertilizer plus water-saving system reduces environmental impacts and improves apple yield in rainfed apple orchards," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    15. Ding, Wenbin & Wang, Fei & Dong, Yunyun & Jin, Kai & Cong, Chenyu & Han, Jianqiao & Ge, Wenyan, 2021. "Effects of rainwater harvesting system on soil moisture in rain-fed orchards on the Chinese Loess Plateau," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    16. Wang, Huan & Fan, Jun & Fu, Wei & Du, Mengge & Zhou, Gu & Zhou, Mingxing & Hao, Mingde & Shao, Ming'an, 2022. "Good harvests of winter wheat from stored soil water and improved temperature during fallow period by plastic film mulching," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 274(C).
    17. Ali, Shahzad & Ma, Xiangcheng & Jia, Qianmin & Ahmad, Irshad & Ahmad, Shakeel & Sha, Zhang & Yun, Bai & Muhammad, Adil & Ren, Xiaolong & shah, Shahen & Akbar, Habib & Cai, Tie & Zhang, Jiahua & Jia, Z, 2019. "Supplemental irrigation strategy for improving grain filling, economic return, and production in winter wheat under the ridge and furrow rainwater harvesting system," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    18. Di Wang, & Wang, Li, 2023. "Characteristics of soil evaporation at two stages of growth in apple orchards with different ages in a semi-humid region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    19. Zhang, Wang & Tian, Yong & Sun, Zan & Zheng, Chunmiao, 2021. "How does plastic film mulching affect crop water productivity in an arid river basin?," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    20. Grum, Berhane & Assefa, Dereje & Hessel, Rudi & Woldearegay, Kifle & Ritsema, Coen J. & Aregawi, Berihun & Geissen, Violette, 2017. "Improving on-site water availability by combining in-situ water harvesting techniques in semi-arid Northern Ethiopia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 153-162.

    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:eee:agiwat:v:253:y:2021:i:c:s0378377421002018. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat .

    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.