Long-Term Water Balance of Selected Field Crops in Different Agricultural Regions of the Czech Republic Using Fao-56 and Soil Hydrological Approaches

Renata Duffková,Ivan Novotný,Jaroslav Rožnovský,Petr Fučík,Jiří Holub

doi:10.3390/su11195243

Renata Duffková, Ivan Novotný + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195243

Copy DOI

Abstract

Long-term water balance (WB) of four selected crops (winter wheat, oilseed rape, silage maize, semi-early potatoes) was determined at the field block scale in the Czech Republic for all agricultural growing areas (AGAs): maize-, beet-, potato- and mountain-AGAs for the 1981–2010 period. A novel approach for the calculation of WB was employed, which combined the FAO-56 method for crop water requirements (CWRs) with sources of available water from precipitation, soil, and groundwater. The computed WB was divided into four categories of soil water availability based on soil hydrolimits and crop features: Categories 1 and 2 with zero or mild occurrence of crop water stress; categories 3 and 4 with intermediate and severe occurrence of crop water stress. The winter crops were affected by water stress to a lesser extent (the area of categories 3 and 4: wheat 20.1%, oilseed rape 14.5%) as compared with spring crops (the area of categories 3 and 4: maize 39.6%, potatoes 41%). The highest water deficit was recorded for all crops in the maize-AGA due to low precipitation and high CWRs. Most available water was revealed to occur in the mountain-AGA. A strong need for the adoption of measures towards the optimization of water regimes on agricultural land was indicated. The present study shows a promising approach for evaluating and proposing changes of area of cultivated crops with the appropriate tillage and agricultural water management in terms of satisfactory crop water requirements.

Highlights

Crop production is affected by agronomic practices, and soil and terrain conditions, but further by climate change which has taken place in Europe since the 1970s [1,2,3] accompanied by an increased crop water deficit [4,5]
The calculated water balance (WB) and its spatial distribution into four categories of soil water availability for individual crops and agricultural growing areas (AGAs) are expressed in Figures 2–5 and Tables 2–5, which, in addition, show the selected components of the WB (CWR, precipitation, available amount of rising groundwater (AARG)) and the length of the growing period
The lowest water stress of oilseed rape in our study could be explained by the lowest daily crop water requirements (CWRs) (1.9–2.0 mm compared to 2.2–2.4 mm for winter wheat, 2.6–3.0 mm for maize and 2.8–3.1 mm for potatoes)

Summary

Introduction

Crop production is affected by agronomic practices, and soil and terrain conditions, but further by climate change which has taken place in Europe since the 1970s [1,2,3] accompanied by an increased crop water deficit [4,5]. The climate change brings the potential for increasing plant production by the enhanced concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) and by an increased intensity of solar radiation with a positive impact on the intensity of photosynthesis and the crop water use efficiency (WUE) [11,12,13]. As a consequence of the increased air temperature as well as the CO2 concentration and a shorter growing period, some climate simulation studies forecast, on the contrary, by mid or by the end of 21st century, an unaltered or even a decreased crop water requirement (CWR) when maintaining the yields or, a parallel increase in CWR and yields [5,14,15]

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion