Yield advantage and water saving in maize/pea intercrop

Effect of aboveground and belowground interactions on the intercrop yields in maize-soybean relay intercropping systems

Interspecific differences in functional traits are a key factor for explaining the positive diversity-productivity relationship in plant communities. However, the role of intraspecific variation attributable to phenotypic plasticity in diversity-productivity relationships has largely been overlooked. By taking a wheat (Triticum aestivum)-maize (Zea mays) intercrop as an elementary example of mixed vegetation, we show that plasticity in plant traits is an important factor contributing to complementary light capture in species mixtures. We conceptually separated net biodiversity effect into the effect attributable to interspecific trait differences and species distribution (community structure effect), and the effect attributable to phenotypic plasticity. Using a novel plant architectural modelling approach, whole-vegetation light capture was simulated for scenarios with and without plasticity based on empirical plant trait data. Light capture was 23% higher in the intercrop with plasticity than the expected value from monocultures, of which 36% was attributable to community structure and 64% was attributable to plasticity. For wheat, plasticity in tillering was the main reason for increased light capture, whereas for intercropped maize, plasticity induced a major reduction in light capture. The results illustrate the potential of plasticity for enhancing resource acquisition in mixed stands, and indicate the importance of plasticity in the performance of species-diverse plant communities.

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/nph.13416

The contribution of phenotypic plasticity to complementary light capture in plant mixtures

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Alternative cropping systems for sustainable water and nitrogen use in the North China Plain

Similarity and difference of potential evapotranspiration and reference crop evapotranspiration – a review

Crop coefficient and water-use efficiency of winter wheat/spring maize strip intercropping

Comparison of Shuttleworth-Wallace model and dual crop coefficient method for estimating evapotranspiration of tomato cultivated in a solar greenhouse

Transplanted short-season cotton followed by winter wheat is widely cultivated in the North China Plain (NCP). However, data and guidelines on irrigation water management for the short-season cotton cultivation are lacking. In order to determine optimal irrigation practices for transplanted cotton in the NCP, a field experiment with surface drip and border irrigation was conducted in 2011, 2012 and 2013 seasons. Four irrigation treatments, namely full drip (DT), full border (BT), deficit drip (DDT) and deficit border (DBT) irrigation treatments, were evaluated on the basis of vegetative growth, evapotranspiration (ET), cotton yield, water use efficiency (WUE) and fiber quality. Results showed that the average seasonal ET ranged from 358 to 449 mm. Compared to the border irrigation, the drip irrigation improved vegetative growth, and the deficit irrigation inhibited vegetative growth compared with the full irrigation. DT produced the highest seed cotton yield of 3164 kg ha−1, while the minimum seed cotton yield of 2459 kg ha−1 was produced in the DBT. On average, DDT produced the largest WUE of 0.83 kg m−3, while the smallest in BT. On average, 33.4 % of the irrigation water was saved by DT compared to BT, and drip irrigation increased seed cotton yield by 11.5 %. In addition, drip irrigation tended to increase the fiber length and optimize the micronaire value. Deficit irrigation significantly decreased the fiber strength and reduced the fiber length. Overall, the DT is recommended as the optimal irrigation strategy for the short-season cotton in the NCP.

Responses of yield, water use efficiency and quality of short-season cotton to irrigation management: interactive effects of irrigation methods and deficit irrigation

To precisely predict evapotranspiration of a maize field with ridge culture under alternate furrow irrigation, a modified Shuttleworth–Wallace (S-W) model was developed by estimating soil surface resistances in irrigated and non-irrigated zones with a proportional coefficient of the wet area, and calculating canopy resistance with the temperature difference between the upper and lower layer canopy. A field experiment with ridge-tillage maize with alternate furrow irrigation was carried out in the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Leaf transpiration was measured using a LI-6400 photosynthesis system, and soil evaporation measured by micro-lysimeter. Soil moisture, stomatal conductance and meteorological factors were collected to estimate soil surface resistance and canopy resistance. Results show that the relative errors between the simulated and observed values of daily soil evaporation were 0.0–10.3%, while the values were 1.4–7.1% for daily crop transpiration. Moreover, the mean absolute error and the root mean square error for simulating daily soil evaporation was 0.2 and 0.3 mm d-1, respectively, while the values for daily transpiration estimation were 1.5 and 1.8 mm d-1, respectively. The index of agreement was greater than 0.785, and the determination coefficient higher than 0.90. Therefore, the modified S-W model can well predict evapotranspiration of ridge-culture maize with alternate furrow irrigation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Yang Gao

Papers

Crop coefficient and water-use efficiency of winter wheat/spring maize strip intercropping

Comparison of Shuttleworth-Wallace model and dual crop coefficient method for estimating evapotranspiration of tomato cultivated in a solar greenhouse

Responses of yield, water use efficiency and quality of short-season cotton to irrigation management: interactive effects of irrigation methods and deficit irrigation

Evapotranspiration Model of Maize Field with Ridge Culture Under Alternate Furrow Irrigation