Affiliation:
1. College of Geography and Environmental Science/Key Research Institute of Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development and Collaborative Innovation Center on Yellow River Civilization of Henan Province Henan University Kaifeng China
2. Key Laboratory of Geospatial Technology for the Middle and Lower Yellow River Regions (Henan University), Ministry of Education/National Demonstration Center for Environment and Planning Henan University Kaifeng China
3. Henan Dabieshan National Field Observation and Research Station of Forest Ecosystem Zhengzhou China
4. Laboratory of Climate Change Mitigation and Carbon Neutrality Henan University Zhengzhou China
5. Xinyang Academy of Ecological Research Xinyang China
6. Department of Geography, Sustainability, Community, and Urban Studies University of Connecticut Storrs Connecticut USA
7. The Forest Science Research Institute of Xinyang Xinyang China
8. Henan Jigongshan Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station Xinyang China
Abstract
AbstractSoil water conservation in dryland agriculture mainly depends on precipitation. We chose 35 long‐term experiments and analysed the data by using meta‐analysis to check how fallow management methods affect soil water storage of dryland winter wheat planting (SWS), precipitation storage efficiency (PSE), crop yield and water use efficiency (WUE). No‐tillage (NT), compared to conventional tillage (CT) in the fallow period, increased PSE, SWS, grain yield and WUE by 32.9%, 27.1%, 30.5% and 22.6%, respectively. Reduced tillage (RT) and subsoil tillage (ST) increased PSE by 15.2% and 11.7%, SWS by 17.4% and 15.0% and grain yield by 15.5 and 13.8%, respectively, but these had a non‐significant effect on WUE. The conservation tillage methods interacted significantly with the residue management and fallow mulching practices. Compared to CT, the conservation tillage methods with fallow mulching increased PSE, SWS, grain yield and WUE, but the growing of cover crops (designated as biological mulching) decreased PSE, SWS and grain yield by 17.3%, 13.0% and 32.0%, and had a non‐significant impact on WUE. Under the condition of straw mulching, NT increased PSE, SWS, grain yield and WUE by 43.7%, 38.1%, 40.6% and 42.9%, respectively, compared to CT. NT and RT increased the PSE, SWS and WUE, under normal mean annual precipitation (MAP), however, ST increased these observations under wet MAP, compared to CT. The effects of tillage methods varied with soil texture, and they were highly interrelated with water conservation, wheat yield and water use. We conclude that compared to conventional tillage, the conservation tillage methods increased soil water conservation during the fallow period, which increased wheat yield and water use. Moreover, NT with or without residue retention increased the fallow water conservation and wheat yield. Crop residues should be retained while applying RT and ST to grow winter wheat in dryland regions.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China