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Spatiotemporal distribution patterns of soil moisture in an apple orchard under effects of plastic film-mulch, ridge and furrow rainfall harvesting system.

SUO Gai-di1, XIE Yong-sheng2**, CHUAI Jun-feng1, LIU Nan1, JING Min-xiao1, CHEN Lei2   

  1. (1College of Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi. China; 2Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, CAS & MWR, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China)
  • Online:2013-09-10 Published:2013-09-10

Abstract: This paper studied the effects of a plastic film-mulch, ridge and furrow rainfall harvesting system on the spatiotemporal distribution patterns of moisture in the 0-600 cm soil profile of an apple orchard at its full fruit-bearing stage in the dryland area of North Shaanxi, China. The water storage at different locations of the soil profile during a year was well represented by a bimodal curve, with two peaks in September and February. The annual average soil moisture content between the ridges (25.8%) was higher than that on the ridges (23.0%). The plastic film-mulch, ridge and furrow rainfall harvesting system changed the spatial distribution of soil moisture content. At the same locations of the soil profile, the soil moisture content between the ridges was higher in the plastic film-mulch, ridge and furrow rainfall harvest system than in the unmulched control treatment. In contrast, the soil moisture content on the ridges was slightly lower in the plastic film-mulch, ridge and furrow rainfall harvesting system than in the control. The moisture content at different locations in 0-200 cm soil layer was high, and the coefficient of variation was also high. Between the ridges, the moisture content in 200-600 cm soil layer was higher and relatively stable, which was beneficial to the development of a healthy and stable orchard ecosystem. In conclusion, the plastic film-mulch, ridge and furrow rainfall harvest system could effectively increase water conservation, improve the rainwater use efficiency, and increase the water availability in apple orchards.

Key words: nitrogen fertilizer, management mode, light use efficiency., nitrogen efficiency