Abstract
Soil aeration and plastic film mulching have been reported to accelerate plant growth and increase fruit yield by improving the rhizosphere soil–air environment. The aim of this study was to investigate plant growth, fruit yield, irrigation water-use efficiency (IWUE) and fruit quality in response to a micro/nano-bubble aeration (MNBA) system and a subsurface artificial air layer aeration system (SAALA) under different treatments. The results indicated that both MNBA and SAALA positively influenced the plant dry weight, fruit yield, IWUE and fruit quality. In comparison with the no aeration treatment, the MNBA treatment increased the dry matter accumulation, fruit yield, IWUE, lycopene content and soluble protein content by 7.1%, 9.0%, 7.1%, 6.2% and 16.2%, respectively. Plastic film mulching (PFM) significantly improved the total dry weight, fruit yield and IWUE during both seasons. The increased yield in response to soil aeration during autumn was significantly greater than that during spring, and the yield increase in response to PFM was significantly greater in spring than in autumn. Moreover, the nutrition indices in response to both soil aeration and PFM were more significant during spring than autumn. Taking into account costs, efficiency and benefits, the optimal treatment was the MNBA and full (F) PFM combination.
Highlights
Compared with Plastic film mulching (PFM), soil aeration resulted in significant increases in the stem, leaf, root, and total dry weight of tomato plants
The results showed that PFM had a significant effect on the stems, leaves, roots, total dry weight and root/shoot ratio of the tomato plants
In comparison with the no aeration treatment, the micro/nano-bubble aeration (MNBA) treatment increased dry matter accumulation, fruit yield, irrigation water-use efficiency (IWUE), lycopene content and soluble protein content during the spring season by 7.1%, 9.0%, 7.1%, 6.2% and 16.2%, respectively, while those during autumn increased by 4.0%, 14.4%, 4.0%, 3.8% and 1.7%, respectively
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Oxygen (O2 ) deficiency in agricultural soils under intensive irrigation is a well-known phenomenon, especially in fine-textured, poorly drained, clayey soils [1]. Previous studies have revealed that various physiological processes and components, such as nitrogen metabolism and translocation [2,3], root resistance to disease, photosynthesis, stomatal behaviour [4], relative membrane permeability, hydrogen peroxide activity, malondialdehyde content, pyruvate decarboxylase activity, alcohol dehydrogenase activity, and lactate dehydrogenase activity [5], can be altered under hypoxic stress. Other studies have demonstrated the negative effects of O2 deficiency in the root zone on plant growth, soil respiration and nutrient uptake [6,7]
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