Abstract
Quantifying the lasting effects of drought stress on crop growth is a theoretical basis for revealing agricultural drought risk mechanism and formulating adaptive irrigation strategies. Based on two-season pot experiments of soybean in the Huaibei Plain, quantitative responses of plant evapotranspiration and aboveground biomass at each growth stage from a drought were carried out. The results showed that drought stress at a certain stage of soybean not only significantly reduced the current evapotranspiration and aboveground biomass accumulation during this stage, compared with full irrigation, but also generated the after-effects, which resulted in the reductions of evapotranspiration and biomass accumulation at the subsequent periods. Furthermore, the damaged transpiration and growth mechanism caused by drought gradually recovered through the rewatering later, and the compensation phenomenon even occurred. Nevertheless, the specific recovery effect was decided by both the degree and period of drought before. It is practical to implement deficit irrigation at the seedling and branching stages, but the degree should be controlled. Meanwhile, it is crucial to ensure sufficient water supply during the reproductive growth phase, especially at the flowering and pod-enlargement stage, to guarantee a normal transpiration function and a high biomass yield for soybeans in the Huaibei Plain.
Highlights
Agricultural drought is one of the major natural disasters all over the world [1,2], it seriously threatens the national food safety and social stability
Those in 2016 decreased by 51.26%, 44.70%, 54.83%, and 61.85%, respectively. It indicated that drought stress at a given growth stage significantly reduced the soybean evapotranspiration in this stage, and the current drought influence at the seed filling stage was the greatest
The evapotranspiration at Stage II under T3 and T4 in 2016 were 27.73% and 61.67% less, respectively. These results were in agreement with Chen et al [38], who reported that the greater water deficit resulted in the lower tomato evapotranspiration by a greenhouse experiment study
Summary
Agricultural drought is one of the major natural disasters all over the world [1,2], it seriously threatens the national food safety and social stability. With the global climate change in recent years, agricultural droughts occur more frequently during soybean growth period in the Huaibei Plain, which markedly reduces the grain yield. It is of great significance for guiding the irrigation and. Water 2021, 13, 18 droughts occur more frequently during soybean growth period in the Huaibei Plain, which markedly reduces the grain yield It is of great significance for guiding the irrigation and guaranteeing a high production to accurately quantify the lasting3inoff1lu9 -.
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