Porous fiber materials can alleviate the risk of farmland drought and flooding disasters and prompt crop growth

Abstract

Floods and droughts on farmland seriously damage agricultural production. Porous fiber materials (PFM) made from mineral rocks have high porosity, permeability, and water retention and are utilized widely in green roofs and agricultural production. Therefore, studying the impact of PFM on the improvement of farmland is of great importance for soil and water conservation. We set 64 extreme rainfalls to analyze the impact of PFM on soil water content (SWC), runoff, nutrient loss, microorganism, and plant growth. The results showed that PFM can effectively reduce runoff and improve soil water distribution, and enhance the soil water holding capacity. Furthermore, PFM reduced the loss of nitrogen and phosphorus by 18.3% to 97% in the runoff, and the soil erosion of summer corn was more strongly influenced by lower vegetation cover, compared with winter wheat. Finally, when PFM was buried in the soil, the wheat yield increased by −6.7%–20.4%, but the corn yield in some PFM groups decreased by 5.1% to 42.5% under short-duration irrigation conditions. Our study emphasizes that the effectiveness of PFM depends mainly on the following: First, PFM with high porosity can increase soil water holding capacity and timely replenish the water lost from the surrounding soil. Second, PFM with high permeability can increase infiltration during rainfall and decrease runoff and nutrient loss, reducing the risk of farmland flooding and pollution. Finally, PFM consists of gold ions and alkali metal oxides, which can stabilize agglomerates and improve soil enzyme activity, thereby increasing the relative abundance of some microbial strains and promoting crop growth. However, when the rainfall amount was low or PFM volume was large, PFM could not store water sufficiently during rainfall, which seriously reduced the maximum saturated moisture content and water absorption performance. Meanwhile, the PFM could not release water in time and replenish the soil water deficit, which increased drought risk. In conclusion, the appropriate volume of PFM and irrigation system may enhance soil water storage capacity, minimize agricultural pollution, and promote crop production.