Guo et al. (2025) Modeling soil water–heat–salt transport and cotton growth under high salinity and seasonal freezing conditions in Northern Xinjiang, China

Identification

• Journal: Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-07
• Authors: Tongkai Guo, Dong Lin, Jiawei Ren, Xiaomin Mao
• DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110919

Research Groups

• Center for Agricultural Water Research in China, China Agricultural University
• National Field Scientific Observation and Research Station on Efficient Water Use of Oasis Agriculture

Short Summary

This study developed a coupled water–heat–salt transport and crop growth model (SWHS-C) to simulate annual cycles in salinized, seasonal frozen agricultural regions, revealing that salt stress primarily limits cotton transpiration and groundwater dynamics drive soil salinity evolution.

Objective

• To quantitatively understand the coupled effects of soil freeze–thaw and soil salinity dynamics on water, heat, and salt transport and their interaction with crop growth at an annual scale in arid, salinized, seasonal frozen agricultural regions.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: A severely salinized cotton field in Northern Xinjiang, China.
• Temporal Scale: A full annual cycle, including both crop growth and fallow seasons, calibrated and validated over two full years.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: SWHS-C model, which integrates a one-dimensional soil water–heat–salt transport module (SWHS) considering phase change with a modified EPIC crop growth model.
• Data sources: Two full years of field data were used for model calibration and validation.

Main Results

• The SWHS-C model successfully captured the temporal dynamics of soil moisture, salinity, temperature, and crop growth, showing good agreement with observations.
• Salt stress was identified as the primary constraint on cotton transpiration in the studied region.
• Groundwater dynamics were found to be the main driver of soil salinity evolution.

Contributions

• Development of a novel coupled water–heat–salt transport and crop growth model (SWHS-C) capable of simulating full annual cycles, including freeze-thaw processes and crop growth.
• Provides new insights into the seasonal patterns of crop stress and salt transport in shallow groundwater zones.
• Highlights the critical importance of groundwater table control for effective salinity mitigation strategies.
• Offers an effective tool for long-term simulation and assessment of coupled hydrological and biological processes in salinized agricultural systems.

Funding

[Not available in the provided text.]

Citation

@article{Guo2025Modeling,
  author = {Guo, Tongkai and Lin, Dong and Ren, Jiawei and Mao, Xiaomin},
  title = {Modeling soil water–heat–salt transport and cotton growth under high salinity and seasonal freezing conditions in Northern Xinjiang, China},
  journal = {Agricultural and Forest Meteorology},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110919},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110919}
}