Soil water consumption, water use efficiency and winter wheat production in response to nitrogen fertilizer and tillage

• Main Authors: Shahbaz Khan, Sumera Anwar, Yu Shaobo, Zhiqiang Gao, Min Sun, M. Yasin Ashraf, Aixia Ren, Zhenping Yang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: PeerJ Inc. 2020-04-01
• Series: PeerJ
• Subjects: Triticum aestivum L.; Soil water content; Loess plateau; Nitrogen use efficiency; Protein yield; Tillage practices
• Online Access: https://peerj.com/articles/8892.pdf

Sustainability of winter wheat yield under dryland conditions depends on improving soil water stored during fallow and its efficient use. A 3-year field experiment was conducted in Loess Plateau to access the effect of tillage and N (nitrogen) rates on soil water, N distribution and water- and nitrogen-use efficiency of winter wheat. Deep tillage (DT, 25–30 cm depth) and no-tillage (NT) were operated during fallow season, whereas four N rates (0, 90, 150 and 210 kg ha−1) were applied before sowing. Rates of N and variable rainfall during summer fallow period led to the difference of soil water storage. Soil water storage at anthesis and maturity was decreased with increasing N rate especially in the year with high precipitation (2014–2015). DT has increased the soil water storage at sowing, N content, numbers of spike, grain number, 1,000 grain weight, grain yield, and water and N use efficiency as compared to NT. Grain yield was significantly and positively related to soil water consumption at sowing to anthesis and anthesis to maturity, total plant N, and water-use efficiency. Our study implies that optimum N rate and deep tillage during the fallow season could improve dryland wheat production by balancing the water consumption and biomass production.