Abstract
In the southern Huang-Huai-Hai (HHH) region, China, maize production is frequently threatened by waterlogging at the seedling stage and by drought at the big flare stage. A two-year field experiment was performed to explore whether subsoiling (SS) in the winter wheat season could improve the photosynthetic capacity and increase the water use efficiency (WUE) of summer maize using the variety, Luyu9105. A split design was adopted in the experiment. The main plots used tillage practices, including SS and rotary tillage (RT). The subplots consisted of two irrigation methods, i.e., applied supplemental irrigation at the big flare stage (I) and no irrigation at the big flare stage (NI). The results showed that the SS treatment significantly increased soil water content (SWC) in the 40–60 cm soil layer. The SS treatment improved green leaf area index (gLAI) by 15.1%–30.2%, and enhanced the ear-leaf net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (gs), intercellular CO2 concentration (ci) and transpiration rate (Tr), and was accompanied by an increase in the grain-filling duration (T) by 5 days and the mean grain-filling rate (Va). The SS treatment decreased the stomatal limitation (Ls), indicating that RT treatment, which was under lower SWC, led to a decrease in Pn. Applied supplemental irrigation under RT treatment was able to compensate for the growth of leaves, but could not reverse the decreasing trend in the gLAI. Ultimately, the SS treatment improved WUE by 9.1%–9.9%, and increased grain yields by 10.0%–29.3%. Therefore, this study showed that in the southern Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, which has a yellow cinnamon soil type, the practice of SS can improve the photosynthetic characteristics of leaves and WUE of rainfed summer maize.
Highlights
The Huang-Huai-Hai (HHH) farming region is one of the most important maize-producing regions in China, accounting for 35.3% of China’s total maize yield from 1995 to 2007 [1,2,3]
Previous studies have shown that no-tillage or reduced-tillage practices are important climate-minded, conservation agriculture practices [8,9] and these methods have been promoted over the past few decades as sustainable farming practices that enhance the adaptive capacity of maize production under drought and heat stress [10]
There was no significant difference between the SS + NI and rotary tillage (RT) + I treatments
Summary
The Huang-Huai-Hai (HHH) farming region is one of the most important maize-producing regions in China, accounting for 35.3% of China’s total maize yield from 1995 to 2007 [1,2,3]. Province is located in the southern HHH Plain. The agricultural production in Anhui Province is mainly rainfed, and changes in the climate. Agronomy 2020, 10, 465 and variation in the annual and seasonal distribution of precipitation have affected water resources; this is threatening summer maize production [5,6,7]. Previous studies have shown that no-tillage or reduced-tillage practices are important climate-minded, conservation agriculture practices [8,9] and these methods have been promoted over the past few decades as sustainable farming practices that enhance the adaptive capacity of maize production under drought and heat stress [10]. In the semi-arid north China Plain, eleven years of no tillage has enhanced the mean percentage of macroaggregates and the macroporosity, in dry years, and increased the soil organic matter and available nutrients in the top 10 cm soil layer [11]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
