Effects of Different Irrigation Strategies on Soil Water, Salt, and Nitrate Nitrogen Transport

Abstract

Abstract Intermittent irrigation has attracted much attention as a water-saving technology in arid and semi-arid regions. For understanding the effect of intermittent irrigation on water and solute storage varied from irrigation amount per time (IRA), irrigation application frequency (IRAF), irrigation intervals (IRI) and even soil texture (ST), intermittent irrigation experiment was carried out in 33 micro-plots in Inner Mongolia, China. The experiment results were used for the calibration and validation of HYDRUS-1D software. Then 3 ST (silty clay loam, silty loam, and silty clay), 5 IRA (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 cm), 4 IRAF (2, 3, 4, and 5 times) and 4 IRI (1, 2, 3, and 4 days) were combined and total 240 scenarios were simulated by HYDRUS-1D. Analysis of variance (ANVOA) of simulated results indicated that ST, IRA, and IRAF had significant effect on salt and nitrate nitrogen (NO3 −-N) storage of 0-40 cm depth soil in intermittent irrigation while only ST affected soil water storage obviously. Furthermore, salt leaching percentage (SLP) and water use efficiency (WUE) of 0-40 cm depth were calculated and statistical prediction models for SLP were established based on the ANOVA using multiple regression analysis in each soil texture. Then constraint conditions of soil water storage (around field capacity), salt storage (smaller than 168 mg·cm−2), WUE (as large as possible) in 0-40 cm depth and total irrigation water amount (less than 25 cm) were proposed to find out the optimal intermittent irrigation strategies. Before sowing, the optimal irrigation strategy for silty clay loam soil was 6 cm IRA, 3 times IRAF, and 2 days IRI respectively. For silty loam and silty clay soils, IRA, IRAF, and IRI were 8 cm, 3 times, and 2 days respectively.