Agricultural Water Management最新文献

{"title":"Night transpiration of peanut affects interspecific water complementarity and use efficiency in maize/peanut intercropping","authors":"Tianran Sun ,&nbsp;Zhanxiang Sun ,&nbsp;Zhe Zhang ,&nbsp;Yue Zhang ,&nbsp;Yajiaoxue Guo ,&nbsp;Jinyu Zhang ,&nbsp;Jiayi Nie ,&nbsp;Zhi Dong ,&nbsp;Zeshan Zhang ,&nbsp;Chenjia Zhang ,&nbsp;Xu Zhang ,&nbsp;Chen Feng ,&nbsp;Lizhen Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109420","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109420","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Interspecific competition for soil water between species in intercropping is critical for understanding the mechanism of resource use and overyielding in a mixture cropping system, however, it is difficult to measure plant transpiration because of lacking direct and precise measuring methods. In this study, we aim to directly measure plant transpiration of each species using sap flow meters with the heat ratio method (HRM) and to explore the interspecific interactions in water use in intercropping. The experiment was conducted in 2021–2023 under semiarid rainfed conditions in Liaoning province, China. Three treatments were compared, i.e. sole maize, sole peanut, and maize/peanut intercropping with 2 maize rows maize and 4 rows peanut. The total transpiration (TTr) of intercropped maize was 53.5 % lower than that of monocropped maize; however, considering the land use proportion of maize in the intercropping (33 %), intercropped maize plants increased TTr by 39.5 %. The water productivity (WP), defined as the above ground dry matter produced by unit crop transpiration, for intercropped maize (8.04 g m⁻² mm⁻¹) was 43.9 % higher than that for the monoculture (5.60 g m⁻² mm⁻¹), due to its strong competitive ability for soil water, resulting from the border row effects in the intercropping. The average dry matter of intercropping maize was 1497 g m⁻², which was 13.6 % higher than that of mono-cropping maize. For intercropped peanut, the TTr was 165 % of that in monocropped peanut, which was 148 % higher than the expected (67 %, land use proportion of peanut), which was probably due to a night transpiration in understory crops. The night sap velocity of intercropped peanut was 9.62 cm h⁻¹ over three years (2021–2023), while the night sap flow of dominant species maize and sole peanut were close to zero. The WP of intercropped peanut (2.75 g m⁻² mm⁻¹) was 35.6 % lower than that of the monoculture (4.27 g m⁻² mm⁻¹). Intercropping increased maize transpiration and produced more above ground dry matter. However, it reduced peanut growth and caused more nighttime transpiration, likely due to changes in microclimate conditions. Our study provides a useful information to understand the mechanism of interspecific affiliations in water use in mixing cropping systems and helps farmers to optimize agronomy managements of intercrops. The results could also contribute to the improvements for evapotranspiration simulation models.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"312 ","pages":"Article 109420"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143551054","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Optimizing the ratios of ridge-furrow mulching patterns and urea types improve the resource use efficiency and yield of broomcorn millet on the Loess Plateau of China","authors":"Lingling Cui ,&nbsp;Jilian Lu ,&nbsp;Shihao Ding ,&nbsp;Xiaosa Song ,&nbsp;Pengliang Chen ,&nbsp;Baili Feng ,&nbsp;Lixin Tian","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109415","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109415","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ridge-furrow mulching patterns and nitrogen application boosted crop yields in arid and semi-arid regions. Nevertheless, their combined impacts on broomcorn millet growth were unclear. A two-year field experiment was conducted to investigate the impacts of three ridge-furrow mulching configurations [traditional planting without mulch(TP), and two ridge-furrow mulching ratios, namely 40 cm: 40 cm(RF40), and 40 cm: 80 cm(RF80)] and four urea type ratios [100 % conventional urea application(U), 30 % conventional urea combined with 70 % controlled release urea(U3C7), 70 % conventional urea combined with 30 % controlled release urea(U7C3), 100 % controlled release urea(C), and no nitrogen fertilizer treatment(N0)] on water/nitrogen use efficiency and yield of broomcorn millet on the Loess Plateau. Results showed that in 2021, compared to TP, RF40 had higher soil moisture content, improved WUE, and increased the dry matter accumulation, thereby boosting the yield of broomcorn millet by 13.42 % and 17.15 % under U7C3 and U3C7 treatments, respectively. Meanwhile, U3C7 and U7C3 treatments significantly increased N partial factor productivity, nitrogen use efficiency, nitrogen recovery efficiency, and improved agronomic traits of broomcorn millet by coordinating fertilizer release with crop growth. Notably, the combination of RF40 and U7C3 maximized resource utilization efficiency and grain yield, with yield and water use efficiency increase of 42.79 % and 35.46 %, respectively. Partial least squares path modeling analysis indicated that fertilizer regimes were the key factor affecting the yield of broomcorn millet. This study offers a scientific foundation for enhancing resource utilization efficiency in arid and semi-arid regions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"312 ","pages":"Article 109415"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143550904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Improving synergy of the water-agriculture-ecology system in arid areas using a novel co-optimization model","authors":"Xingyu Zhu ,&nbsp;Xiaoling Su ,&nbsp;Vijay P. Singh ,&nbsp;Haijiang Wu ,&nbsp;Jiping Niu ,&nbsp;Lianzhou Wu ,&nbsp;Jiangdong Chu","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109408","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109408","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In arid areas, the intricate interconnections and competition among water, agriculture, and ecology are particularly pronounced. Enhancing the synergy within the water-agriculture-ecology (WAE) system, while seeking common ground of competing sectors, presents a formidable challenge in managing water and land resources. In this study, the synergy of the WAE system was assessed using a coordinated development degree function, which was developed by considering the coefficient of variation and spatial distance projection. We investigated the multi-factor dynamic regulation of the WAE system through a water-agriculture-ecology co-optimization (WAECO) modelling framework, which adheres to a regulatory model that follows global-to-local optimization and bottom-up feedback. Using this framework, key factors, such as reservoir water supply, groundwater exploitation, and planting structure in the Shiyang River Basin (SRB), a typical arid basin in northwest China, were regulated. Results indicated crop yields and economic benefits in the baseline year reflected increments of 1.2 % and 5.4 %, respectively, compared to the actual scenario, while simultaneously increasing ecological water satisfaction by 11.1 % post-co-optimization. Through bilateral regulations between supply and demand, the annual average water deficit of the WAE system notably decreased from 7.5 % to 3.4 % in the mixed irrigation area of Liuhe midstream. The WAECO model effectively reconciled competing sectoral interests and improved the synergy of the WAE system, as indicated by a 6.3 % improvement in the coordinated development degree over the static regulation model. The new framework integrates a broad spectrum of regulatory factors and provides decision-makers with thorough and practical information, thereby facilitating the integrated management of the WAE system in arid areas.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"312 ","pages":"Article 109408"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143550915","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effect of water-saving technologies on nitrogen losses in rice fields: A meta-analysis","authors":"Sabi Kidirou Gbedourorou ,&nbsp;Pierre G. Tovihoudji ,&nbsp;Sissou Zakari ,&nbsp;Marnik Vanclooster ,&nbsp;P.B. Irenikatché Akponikpè","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109400","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109400","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Nitrogen losses from intensified agricultural lands such as rice fields have posed severe water pollution. Thus, several water-saving technologies (WST) such as alternate wet and dry (AWD), controlled irrigation (CI), and shallow intermittent irrigation (SII) have been adopted to reduce nitrogen loss from rice fields. Research on WST effects has shown varied impacts on nitrogen losses, with limited consensus on the most efficient WST type or the most affected nitrogen component. This study synthesizes the current knowledge of the impact of WST on nitrogen loss in rice fields using meta-analysis. A total of 182 observations from 38 peer-reviewed studies were analyzed using meta-analytic and meta-CART models, with WST as treatment, and continuous flooding (CF) irrigation as control. The results revealed that nitrogen losses were significantly lower under WST compared to CF irrigation (p &lt; 0.001), with reductions of 35 %, 28.2 %, and 25.2 % in ammonia (NH₄⁺-N), nitrate (NO₃^--N) and total nitrogen (TN) leaching, respectively. However, ammonia (NH₃) volatilization showed no significant difference between WST and CF irrigation, with response ratios close to zero. In contrast, nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions were significantly higher under WST, particularly under AWD (RR = 0.37). NO₃^--N leaching was reduced 2.2 times more effectively with the application of controlled release fertilizer (CRF) under WST compared to urea (46 %N) (53.2 % vs. 24.3 %). Applying biochar combined with urea reduced nitrogen leaching by 42.7 %, outperforming urea alone but remaining less effective than CRF. Urea application increased N₂O emissions by 3.0 %, while CRF reduced them by 3.1 % under WST compared to CF irrigation. At higher nitrogen application rates (&gt;225 kg N ha⁻¹), WST led to greater reductions in nitrogen leaching (1.9 times for NO₃^--N and 1.6 times for TN) compared to CF irrigation. Additionally, NO₃⁻-N leaching was 2.19 times effectively reduced in rice fields with higher seedling density (26–45 plants m⁻²) compared to lower density (10–25 plants m⁻²) under WST. The meta-analysis further showed no significant effect of WST on rice grain yield compared to CF irrigation. This study provides a quantitative synthesis of the effects of WST on nitrogen losses in rice fields, highlighting their variable effectiveness depending on WST type, nitrogen source, application rate, and seedling density. Future research should address the availability of CRF, explore alternatives for developing countries, and examine the relationship between water management, rice seedling density, and nitrogen losses.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"312 ","pages":"Article 109400"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143550905","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Energy balance, water use efficiency, and photochemistry of two globally cultivated rainfed cactus species","authors":"Alexandre Maniçoba da Rosa Ferraz Jardim ,&nbsp;José Edson Florentino de Morais ,&nbsp;Xuguang Tang ,&nbsp;Luciana Sandra Bastos de Souza ,&nbsp;Carlos André Alves de Souza ,&nbsp;Wilma Roberta dos Santos ,&nbsp;Fabio Ricardo Marin ,&nbsp;George do Nascimento Araújo Júnior ,&nbsp;Cléber Pereira Alves ,&nbsp;Gabriel Italo Novaes da Silva ,&nbsp;Renan Matheus Cordeiro Leite ,&nbsp;Kaique Renan da Silva Salvador ,&nbsp;Daniela de Carvalho Lopes ,&nbsp;Antonio José Steidle Neto ,&nbsp;Jean Pierre Henry Balbaud Ometto ,&nbsp;João L.M.P. de Lima ,&nbsp;Thieres George Freire da Silva","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109385","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109385","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Linking knowledge of energy fluxes and evapotranspiration (ET) in cacti is useful for understanding plant growth, which acts as an extremely important feed source for dairy farming. However, there is little quantitative understanding of the latent (<em>LE</em>) and sensible (<em>H</em>) heat fluxes in drylands of cactus. We therefore investigated the feedback from plants of <em>Nopalea</em> and <em>Opuntia</em> on an interannual and seasonal scale, of the surface energy balance (SEB) components, morphophysiological parameters, biomass, water relations and photochemical relationships during the wet and dry seasons of 2018–2021 in the semi-arid region of Brazil. To analyse the data, four periods were selected (dry season, wet season, and dry-wet and wet-dry transitions). Our results showed that the <em>LE</em> (105.26 W m^{<em>−</em>2}) of <em>Opuntia</em> was 77 % greater than that of <em>Nopalea.</em> In all seasons, <em>H</em> was the SEB component with the highest energy consumption in the two cacti, with <em>LE</em> the second most affected<em>.</em> Under <em>Nopalea</em>, the soil heat flux increased at the surface (112 %) during the wet and dry seasons (a mean of 1.61 MJ m^{<em>−</em>2} day^{<em>−</em>1}). The mean ET of <em>Nopalea</em> and <em>Opuntia</em> was 1.71 and 1.96 mm day^{<em>−</em>1}_, respectively. The <em>H</em>/<em>R</em>_<em>n</em> ratio showed decreasing behaviour from the dry to the wet season, with a reduction of 37 % in <em>Nopalea</em> and 14 % in <em>Opuntia.</em> The NDVI ranged from 0.19 to 0.67 (<em>Nopalea</em>), and 0.17–0.70 for <em>Opuntia,</em> similar to the Chlorophyll Index, which maintained the seasonality of the NDVI. Overall, we found spatial patterns for the Photochemical Reflectance Index of −0.01 to 0.14 for <em>Nopalea</em> and <em>Opuntia.</em> Under the same conditions, <em>Opuntia</em> showed a higher growth rate and net assimilation rate. The mean cladode water content was 86 % in <em>Nopalea</em> and 89 % in <em>Opuntia.</em> Biomass and water use efficiency were greater in <em>Opuntia</em> (56.01 Mg ha^{<em>−</em>1} and 7.54 kg m^{<em>−</em>3}_, respectively). We also found that these comparisons indicate greater sensitivity in <em>Nopalea</em>, and more-significant quantification of the SEB in <em>Opuntia</em>.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"311 ","pages":"Article 109385"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143547096","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Private service provision contributes to widespread innovation adoption among smallholder farmers: Laser land levelling technology in northwestern India","authors":"Subash Surendran-Padmaja ,&nbsp;Martin C. Parlasca ,&nbsp;Matin Qaim ,&nbsp;Vijesh V. Krishna","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109411","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109411","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Small farms often face challenges in adopting indivisible technologies, such as agricultural machinery, which contrast with more easily divisible technologies like new seeds and fertilisers. This study investigates key institutional factors promoting the adoption of laser land levelling (LLL), a water-saving technology that has gained wide popularity among farmers in northwestern India. The main objective is to evaluate how individual private service providers, offering LLL on a rental basis, influence technology adoption among farmers. Plot-level data from 1661 farm households across 84 villages in Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh were collected and analysed to understand farmers’ technology perceptions and adoption decisions. Results from regression models show that access to a larger number of private service providers in the local context is associated with higher rates of LLL adoption, also after controlling for other farm, household, and contextual characteristics. The effect of private service provision on adoption is particularly pronounced among the smallest farms. These findings suggest that conducive institutional environments, tailored to the specific needs of different farm sizes, help to speed up innovation adoption. Our study is the first to show that individual service provision through private agents is a promising mechanism for inclusive technology adoption in the small-fam sector.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"312 ","pages":"Article 109411"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143547095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Excessive irrigation-driven greening has triggered water shortages and compromised sustainability","authors":"Xiaoyao Lu ,&nbsp;Minzhong Zou ,&nbsp;Gary Gan ,&nbsp;Shaozhong Kang","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109405","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109405","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Regional greening provides substantial benefits to ecological sustainability in drylands. However, extensive greening, driven by the complex interplay of agronomic practices and climate changes, has profoundly altered terrestrial water storage. Despite its importance, a comprehensive quantification of these impacts in dryland ecosystems remains insufficient. Here, terrestrial water storage changes in the inland arid region of Northwest China are investigated through Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission data combined with a water balance analysis. Machine learning is used to decompose the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) by agronomic drivers (irrigated cropland expansion (ICE) and increased nitrogen fertilizer (NFER)) and natural drivers (elevated atmospheric CO₂ (eCO₂) and heightened reference evapotranspiration) to quantify the long-term impacts of regional greening (i.e., NDVI increases) on terrestrial water storage anomaly (TWSA). The results show a significant decline in TWSA since the 21st century, and water balance analysis attributed it to persistently high and rising evapotranspiration. Regional greening and heightened reference evapotranspiration, as primary catalysts intensifying regional evapotranspiration, synergistically propelled the depletion of TWSA, with regional greening exhibiting a stronger correlation with TWSA. Further, regional ICE-driven greening has contributed the most to the decline in TWSA, exceeding that of eCO₂ and NFER. The sensitivity of TWSA to ICE-driven greening increased linearly as the regional drought index rose. Effective irrigation and nitrogen fertilizer management have improved crop growth and yields, but also increased evapotranspiration, accelerating the depletion of regional water resources. Ceasing the irrigation expansion will help to combat further decline in TWSA and enhance dryland ecological health.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"311 ","pages":"Article 109405"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143547120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From weather data to water fluxes simulation in Mediterranean greenhouses through a combined climate and hydrological modelling approach","authors":"D. la Cecilia ,&nbsp;A. Venezia ,&nbsp;D. Massa ,&nbsp;M. Camporese","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109386","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109386","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the Mediterranean basin, agricultural land covered by greenhouses has been surging in the recent decades. The main goal of this study is to provide estimates of water demand and fluxes in Mediterranean greenhouses starting from outdoor weather data. This is achieved by developing a novel agricultural water modelling framework that combines a greenhouse climate model with a Richards equation-based hydrological model. We improve and evaluate an existing greenhouse climate model with greenhouse data from an experiment using rocket (<em>Diplotaxis tenuifolia</em>) as the candidate crop in South Italy for its market importance. The first major improvement regards the iterative estimation of the potential crop evapotranspiration using the FAO56 Penman Monteith method, adapted for greenhouse conditions, at the hourly scale, rather than a locally calibrated formula. The second one concerns the full coupling between the heat balance equations of the air and the soil compartments. The greenhouse climate model was able to simulate with satisfying accuracy the measured indoor air temperature (r²=0.58 and KGE=0.76) and relative humidity (r²=0.47 and KGE=0.67). Importantly, the crop potential evapotranspiration estimated from climate data either measured indoor or simulated with the greenhouse model were identical. Next, the hydrological model CATchment HYdrology (CATHY) was evaluated in the same experimental setting but different period (rocket in autumn and spring growing conditions), under sprinkler and subsurface drip irrigation. The CATHY model, fed with irrigation data and crop potential evapotranspiration estimated from measured indoor climate, reproduced well the measured soil water content dynamics at five depths (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 cm), despite some bias due to the lack of soil-specific sensor calibration. While the proposed modelling framework is currently coupled in a one-way manner, it has the potential to unlock valuable knowledge for the enhancement of our understanding of greenhouse farming implications on water management at plot and larger scales.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"311 ","pages":"Article 109386"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143527019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Optimized length and application rate of chopped straw for alfalfa production in ridge-furrow rainwater-harvesting in semi-arid regions in China","authors":"Xiaole Zhao ,&nbsp;Qi Wang ,&nbsp;Abdul Qadeer ,&nbsp;Yuanwei Sun ,&nbsp;Rizwan Azim ,&nbsp;Ibrahim Awuku ,&nbsp;Farzaneh Masoumkhani ,&nbsp;Wen Ma ,&nbsp;Qinglin Liu ,&nbsp;Xunzhen Cui ,&nbsp;Haixia Dong ,&nbsp;Xuchun Li ,&nbsp;Bing Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109393","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109393","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Water scarcity poses a significant challenge for alfalfa (<em>Medicago sativa</em> L) cultivation in semi-arid regions in China. The conventional use of ridge-furrow rainwater harvesting (RFRH) with plastic film mulching in these areas has led to notable environmental repercussions. This study proposed an innovative approach in which RFRH was integrated with chopped straw-soil crust instead of plastic film. Runoff observations and alfalfa production experiments were carried out using a split-plot design to investigate the impact of varying chopped straw lengths (2 cm and 10 cm) and application rates (0 (R₀), 3 (R₃), 6 (R₆), and 9 (R₉) t ha⁻¹) on runoff coefficient, soil water storage, temperature, fodder yield, and crop water productivity (WP_C). Results indicated that the average runoff coefficient for R₀, R₃, R₆, and R₉ was 0.36–0.49, 0.41–0.59, 0.50–0.68, and 0.64–0.74, respectively. Compared to R₀, the increase in soil water storage for R₃, R₆, and R₉ was 7.1–15.1, 15.0–26.5, and 20.1–44.2 mm, respectively. The reduction in temperature within the furrow profile for those treatments was 0.4–1.0°C, 0.8–1.3°C, and 1.1–2.0°C, respectively. The increase in fodder yield for those treatments ranged from 11.3 % to 34.0 %, 31.2 %-62.9 %, and 7.9 %-47.7 %, respectively, while the enhancement in WP_C was 1.3–14.8, 5.1–27.9, and 2.0–20.7 kg ha⁻¹ mm⁻¹. Notably, the average values for runoff coefficient, soil water storage, fodder yield, and WP_C under 10 cm length of chopped straw were 1.03–1.31, 1.02–1.03, 1.02–1.05, and 1.03–1.08 times greater than under 2 cm length of chopped straw. Runoff coefficient, soil water storage, fodder yield, and WP_C increased as chopped straw application rate and length increased. The structural equation modelling analysis showed that the chopped straw application rate had a significant direct positive effect on fodder yield and WP_C, whereas the chopped straw length had a significant indirect negative effect on those parameters. The regression equation indicated that the optimized chopped straw application rate ranged from 5.2 to 7.1 t ha⁻¹, while the optimized chopped straw length was 10 cm. This study underscored that chopped straw-soil crust was a sustainable alternative to plastic film mulching, offering valuable insights for improving alfalfa cultivation in water-scarce environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"311 ","pages":"Article 109393"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143527255","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Synthesizing regional irrigation data using machine learning – Towards global upscaling via metamodeling","authors":"Søren Julsgaard Kragh ,&nbsp;Raphael Schneider ,&nbsp;Rasmus Fensholt ,&nbsp;Simon Stisen ,&nbsp;Julian Koch","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109404","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109404","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Knowledge on irrigation is key to sustainable water resource management, but spatio-temporal irrigation data are rarely available. Recent advances are based upon satellite remote sensing data to quantify irrigation at high spatial resolution, and this study utilizes published irrigation datasets at regional scale to develop a metamodel approach to synthesize the available irrigation knowledge. We investigate the potentials and limitations of a Random Forest-based metamodeling approach that predicts irrigation at monthly timescale using only globally available and easily accessible features related to hydroclimatic and vegetation variables. The training dataset consists of three irrigation water use datasets derived from the soil moisture-based inversion framework and covers a variety of climatic conditions and irrigation practices in Spain, Italy, and Australia. Further, the study includes irrigation predictions from three test sites representing major global hot spots for unsustainable irrigation management: the North China Plain, Indus, and Ganges Basins. Our study aims to test the model transferability in space and time based on a series of split-sample experiments. We quantify and outline model transferability based on the area of applicability analysis, showing that although the feature space was mostly well represented, the magnitude of the target variable was equally important for assessing model transferability. A comprehensive feature importance analysis reveals that ranking of the most important input features depends on geographical extent of the training dataset. We find that model transferability was more robust across space than time within the small study areas, mainly because of the small geographical extents of the training datasets. The developed metamodel demonstrates satisfying performance on irrigation water use with mean error of 3 mm/month (10% bias) for a successful model transferability outside the training study areas. The spatial pattern performance of irrigation was lower but spatial patterns of irrigation were nevertheless closely linked to climate and remote sensing features. Given the increase in published regional irrigation datasets, we see great potential for further developing metamodel approaches for synthesizing existing knowledge and work towards global upscaling opportunities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"311 ","pages":"Article 109404"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143520838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}