Research Articles |
|
|
|
|
Effects of water salinity and N application rate on water- and N-use efficiency of cotton under drip irrigation |
Wei MIN, ZhenAn HOU*, LiJuan MA, Wen ZHANG, SiBo RU, Jun YE |
Department of Resources and Environmental Science, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China |
|
|
Abstract In arid and semi-arid regions, freshwater scarcity and high water salinity are serious and chronic problems for crop production and sustainable agriculture development. We conducted a field experiment to evaluate the effect of irrigation water salinity and nitrogen (N) application rate on soil salinity and cotton yield under drip irrigation during the 2011 and 2012 growing seasons. The experimental design was a 3×4 factorial with three irrigation water salinity levels (0.35, 4.61 and 8.04 dS/m) and four N application rates (0, 240, 360 and 480 kg N/hm2). Results showed that soil water content increased as the salinity of the irrigation water increased, but decreased as the N application rate increased. Soil salinity increased as the salinity of the irrigation water increased. Specifically, soil salinity measured in 1:5 soil:water extracts was 218% higher in the 4.61 dS/m treatment and 347% higher in the 8.04 dS/m treatment than in the 0.35 dS/m treatment. Nitrogen fertilizer application had relatively little effect on soil salinity, increasing salinity by only 3%–9% compared with the unfertilized treatment. Cotton biomass, cotton yield and evapotranspiration (ET) decreased significantly in both years as the salinity of irrigation water increased, and increased as the N application rate increased regardless of irrigation water salinity; however, the positive effects of N application were reduced when the salinity of the irrigation water was 8.04 dS/m. Water use efficiency (WUE) was significantly higher by 11% in the 0.35 dS/m treatment than in the 8.04 dS/m treatment. There was no significant difference in WUE between the 0.35 dS/m treatment and the 4.61 dS/m treatment. The WUE was also significantly affected by the N application rate. The WUE was highest in the 480 kg N/hm2 treatment, being 31% higher than that in the 0 kg N/hm2 treatment and 12% higher than that in the 240 kg N/hm2 treatment. There was no significant difference between the 360 and 480 kg N/hm2 treatments. The N use efficiency (NUE) was significantly lower in the 8.04 dS/m treatment than in either the 4.61 dS/m or the 0.35 dS/m treatment. There was no significant difference in NUE between the latter two treatments. These results suggest that irrigation water with salinity <4.61 dS/m does not have an obvious negative effect on cotton production, WUE or NUE under the experimental conditions. Application of N fertilizer (0–360 kg N/hm2) could alleviate salt damage, promote cotton growth, and increase both cotton yield and water use efficiency.
|
Received: 28 June 2013
Published: 12 August 2014
|
Fund: This work was funded by the National Basic Research Program of China (2009CB825101) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30960210). |
Corresponding Authors:
|
|
|
Asharf M, Ahmad S. 1999. Exploitation of intra-specific genetic variation for improvement of salt (NaCl) tolerance in upland cotton (Gossypium Hirsutum L.). Hereditas, 131: 253−256.Assouline S, Moller M, Cohen S, et al. 2006. Soil-plant system response to pulsed drip irrigation and salinity: bell pepper case study. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 70: 1556−1568.Ayars J E, Pheneb C J, Hutmacherc R B, et al. 1999. Subsurface drip irrigation of row crops: a review of 15 years of research at the Water Management Research Laboratory. Agricultural Water Management, 42: 1−27.Batchelor C, Lovell C, Murata M. 1996. Simple micro-irrigation techniques for improving irrigation efficiency on vegetable gardens. Agricultural Water Management, 32: 37−48.Bucks D A, Nakayama F S, Warrick A W. 1982. Principles, practices, and potentialities of trickle (drip) irrigation. Advances in Irrigation, 1: 219−298.Chen W P, Hou Z A, Wu L S, et al. 2010a. Effects of salinity and nitrogen on cotton growth in arid environment. Plant and Soil, 326: 61−73.Chen W P, Hou Z A, Wu L S, et al. 2010b. Evaluating salinity distribution in soil irrigated with saline water in arid regions of northwest China. Agricultural Water Management, 97: 2001–2008.Corwin D L, Rhoades J D, Simunek J. 2007. Leaching requirement for soil salinity control: Steady-state versus transient models. Agricultural Water Management, 90: 165–180.Ding X D, Tian C Y, Zhang S F, et al. 2010. Effects of NO3−-N on the growth and salinity tolerance of Tamarix laxa Willd. Plant and Soil, 331: 57−67.Dudley L M, Ben-Gal A, Shani U. 2008. Influence of plant, soil, and water on the leaching fraction. Journal of Vadose Zone, 7: 420−425.Esmaili E, Kapourchal S A, Malakouti M J. 2008. Interactive effect of salinity and two nitrogen fertilizers on growth and composition of sorghum. Plant, Soil and Environment, 54: 537−546.Good A G, Shrawat A K, Muench D G. 2004. Can less yield more? Is reducing nutrient input into the environment compatible with maintaining crop production? Trends in Plant Science, 9: 597−605.Gowing J W, Rose D A, Ghamarnia H. 2009. The effect of salinity on water productivity of wheat under deficit irrigation above shallow groundwater. Agricultural Water Management, 96: 517−524.Grattan S R, Grieve C M. 1992. Mineral element acquisition and growth response of plants grown in saline environments. Agriculture, Ecosystem & Environment, 38: 275−300.Haberle J, Svoboda P, Krejcova J. 2006. Uptake of mineral nitrogen from subsoil by winter wheat. Plant, Soil and Environment, 52: 308−313.Heidarpour M, Mostafazadeh-Fard B, Arzani A, et al. 2009. Effects of irrigation water salinity and leaching fraction on yield and evapotranspiration in spring wheat. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis. 40: 2521–2535.Homaee M, Feddes R A, Dirksen C. 2002. A macroscopic water extraction model for nonuniform transient salinity and water stress. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 66: 1764−1772.Hou S, Hou Z A, Ye J, et al. 2010. Cotton growth and nitrogen uptake in response to rates of water and nitrogen under drip irrigation with saline water. Xinjiang Agricultural Sciences, 47(9): 1882−1887.Hou Z A, Li P F, Gong J, et al. 2007. Effect of different soil salinity levels and application rates of nitrogen on the growth of cotton under drip irrigation. Chinese Journal of Soil Science, 38: 681−686.Hou Z A, Chen W P, Xiao L, et al. 2009. Effects of salinity and fertigation practice on cotton yield and 15N recovery. Agricultural Water Management, 96: 1483−1489.Ibragimov N, Evett S R, Esanbekov Y, et al. 2007. Water use efficiency of irrigated cotton in Uzbekistan under drip and furrow irrigation. Agricultural Water Management, 90: 112–120.Jiang J, Huo Z, Feng S, et al. 2012. Effect of irrigation amount and water salinity on water consumption and water productivity of spring wheat in Northwest China. Field Crops Research, 137: 78−88.Kang Y H, Chen M, Wan S Q. 2010. Effects of drip irrigation with saline water on waxy maize (Zea mays L. var. ceratina Kulesh) in North China Plain. Agricultural Water Management, 97: 1303–1309.Letey J, Feng G L. 2007. Dynamic versus steady-state approaches to evaluate irrigation management of saline waters. Agricultural Water Management, 91: 1−10.Malash N M, Flowers T J, Ragab R. 2008. Effect of irrigation methods, management and salinity of irrigation water on tomato yield, soil moisture and salinity distribution. Irrigation Science, 26: 313−323.Orak A, Ate? E. 2005. Resistance to salinity stress and available water levels at the seedling stage of the common vetch (Vicia sativa L.). Plant, Soil and Environment, 51: 51−56.Oster J D. 1994. Irrigation with poor quality water. Agricultural Water Management, 25: 271−297.Oweis T, Zhang H, Pala M. 2000. Water use efficiency of rainfed and irrigated bread wheat in a Mediterranean environment. Agronomy Journal, 92: 231−238.Pereira L S, Oweis T, Zairi A. 2002. Irrigation management under water scarcity. Agricultural Water Management, 57: 175−206.Romero-Aranda R, Sorai T, Cuartero J. 2001. Tomato plant-water uptake and plant-water relationships under saline growth conditions. Plant Science, 160: 265–272.Supanjani, Lee K D. 2006. Hot pepper response to interactive effects of salinity and boron. Plant, Soil and Environment, 52: 227−233.van Hoorn J W, Katerji N, Hamdy A, et al. 2001. Effect of salinity on yield and nitrogen uptake of four grain legumes and on biological nitrogen contribution from the soil. Agricultural Water Management, 51: 87–98. Villa-Castorena M, Ulery A L, Catnlan-Valencia E A, et al. 2003. Salinity and nitrogen rate effects on the growth and yield of chile pepper plants. Soil Science Soceity of America Journal, 67: 1781−1789.Wang C, Isoda A, Wang P. 2004. Growth and yield performance of some cotton cultivars in Xinjiang, China, an arid area with short growing period. Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science, 190: 177–183.Wang Q J, Xu Y M, Wang J D, et al. 2002. Application of saline and slight saline water for farmland irrigation. Irrigation and Drainage, 21: 73−77.Wang Y G, Xiao D N, Li Y, et al. 2008. Soil salinity evolution and its relationship with dynamics of groundwater in the oasis of inland river basins: case study from the Fubei region of Xinjiang Province, China. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 140: 291–302.Zhang D, Li W, Xin C, et al. 2012. Lint yield and nitrogen use efficiency of field-grown cotton vary with soil salinity and nitrogen application rate. Field Crops Research, 138: 63–70.Zhu L, Ma L, Liu X, et al. 2011. Leaching and distributions of soil water, salt, and nitrate in cotton field under drip irrigation with saline water irrigation. Journal of Shihezi University: Natural Science, 29(6): 661–669. |
|
Viewed |
|
|
|
Full text
|
|
|
|
|
Abstract
|
|
|
|
|
Cited |
|
|
|
|
|
Shared |
|
|
|
|
|
Discussed |
|
|
|
|