Qin et al. (2025) The effect of deficit irrigation combining with transparent/black film and straw mulching on wheat-maize cropping system in the North China Plain

Identification

• Journal: Agricultural Water Management
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-29
• Authors: Shanshan Qin, Yanqun Zhang, Xiyun Jiao, Chuanjuan Wang, Yan Mo, Shihong Gong, Zhe Gu, Baozhong Zhang
• DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2025.110021

Research Groups

• College of Agricultural Science and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China
• State Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Water Security, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China
• Department of irrigation and drainage, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China
• Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

Short Summary

This study investigated the effects of deficit irrigation combined with various mulching materials on winter wheat-summer maize rotation in the North China Plain. It found that transparent film mulching under deficit irrigation significantly increased annual yield, water productivity, and economic profit, while deficit irrigation alone negatively impacted wheat but not subsequent maize.

Objective

• To elucidate the dynamic changes in soil water content (SWC) and soil temperature from wheat sowing to maize harvesting under different irrigation and mulching treatments.
• To reveal the effects of different mulching measures and winter wheat irrigation systems on subsequent maize and annual yield and water productivity (WP).
• To select optimized mulching models and deficit irrigation system combinations that balance high annual yield, efficient water use, and good economic benefits.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Field experiment conducted at the Experimental Station of the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research in Daxing District, Beijing, China (39°39’ N, 116°15’ E), characterized by a semi-arid continental monsoon climate and sandy loam fluvo-aquic soil.
• Temporal Scale: Two-year field experiments from 2020 to 2022, covering two full winter wheat-summer maize rotation cycles.

Methodology and Data

• Models used:
  • Water balance method for evapotranspiration (ETa) calculation.
  • Generalized linear model for multivariate analysis of variance using SPSS software (v13.0).
• Data sources:
  • Field experiments with controlled irrigation amounts (full irrigation and deficit irrigation) and mulching measures (no mulching, transparent film, black film, straw mulching).
  • Rainfall data from small weather stations within the experimental station.
  • Soil water content and temperature measured using soil moisture probes (Decagon Em50 Series, 5TM probe) at 5 cm, 15 cm, and 30 cm depths, corrected by oven-drying method.
  • Leaf area index (LAI) determined by measuring leaf dimensions (maize) or image processing (wheat).
  • Aboveground biomass determined by drying and weighing sampled plants.
  • Yield and yield components (ear length, ear diameter, grains per ear, thousand-grain weight, hundred-grain weight) measured from harvested plots.
  • Economic data (input costs, grain sales prices) from Seed Market Monitoring Information Release Platform and local market prices.

Main Results

• Deficit irrigation (DI) for winter wheat reduced wheat yield by 4.5% and annual yield by 1.1% on average, but increased subsequent maize yield by 1.5%.
• DI increased water productivity (WP) for wheat, subsequent maize, and annual rotation by 8.8%, 3.6%, and 5.1%, respectively.
• Mulching treatments generally increased soil water content (SWC) compared to no mulching (NM), with transparent film (TM) showing the highest SWC under DI.
• Transparent film (TM) and black film (BM) mulching significantly increased summer maize soil temperature, while straw mulching (SM) significantly decreased winter wheat soil temperature.
• Under DI conditions, transparent film mulching (TM) significantly increased the wheat-maize rotation (annual) yield by 6.7% and annual net profit by 3.3%.
• TM, BM, and SM treatments increased annual WP by 13.1%, 9.9%, and 7.4%, respectively, under DI.
• Black film (BM) and straw mulching (SM) did not consistently increase annual yield or profit under DI, primarily due to a significant decrease in wheat thousand-grain weight.
• The annual net profit of TM treatment was higher than that of BM and SM treatments.

Contributions

This study provides a comprehensive, two-year field-based analysis of combining deficit irrigation with different mulching materials on the entire winter wheat-summer maize rotation system in the North China Plain, addressing a gap in research that often focuses on single crop seasons. It quantifies the impacts on soil hydro-thermal properties, crop growth, yield, water productivity, and economic benefits, identifying transparent film mulching under deficit irrigation as the optimal strategy for balancing water saving, yield increase, and economic returns, while also highlighting the environmental concern of plastic film residue.

Funding

• Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (B240201030)
• National Natural Science Foundation of China (52279054, 52130906)
• Special Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Water Security, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (SKL2024YJTS07)

Citation

@article{Qin2025effect,
  author = {Qin, Shanshan and Zhang, Yanqun and Jiao, Xiyun and Wang, Chuanjuan and Mo, Yan and Gong, Shihong and Gu, Zhe and Zhang, Baozhong},
  title = {The effect of deficit irrigation combining with transparent/black film and straw mulching on wheat-maize cropping system in the North China Plain},
  journal = {Agricultural Water Management},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/j.agwat.2025.110021},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2025.110021}
}