Abstract
Rice is a highly water-consumptive crop under frequent flooding. However, the contributions of soil water and ponded water to rice are unclear, complicating efforts to water management in paddy ecosystem efficiently. Using stable isotopes of the oxygen (δ18O) and hydrogen (δD), we aimed to determine isotopic compositions of ponded water, soil water, and groundwater, and then to evaluate their contributions to rice crop. Two types of paddy water management, one under continuous flooding (CF) and the other under alternate flooding and drying (AFD), were investigated. The isotope ratios of rice stem water, ponded water, soil water along soil profile of 0–50 cm, irrigation water, groundwater, and rain water were determined by isotope ratio infrared spectroscopy. The direct inference method and Iso-source model approach showed that rice appeared to use soil water from <10 cm depth, which accounted for approximately 80 % of rice water in the CF field, while in the AFD paddy soil, >90 % of rice water was 0–15 cm from soil depth. The contribution of ponded water to rice crop was negligible (<1.1 %). Water use efficiency under the AFD condition was significantly greater than that under CF condition. This study provides direct evidence that water can be saved considerably if the ponded water is reduced.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Asbjornsen H, Mora G, Helmers MJ (2007) Variation in water uptake dynamics among contrasting agricultural and native plant communities in the Midwestern US. Agric Ecosyst Environ 121:343–356
Bijoor NS, McCarthy HR, Zhang D, Pataki DE (2011) Water sources of urban trees in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Urban Ecosyst 15:195–214
Bouman BAM, Tuong TP (2001) Field water management to save water and increase its productivity in irrigated lowland rice. Agric Water Manag 49:11–30
Bouman BAM, Lampayan RM, Tuong TP (2007) Water management in irrigated rice: coping with water scarcity. International Rice Research Institute, Lao Banos
Brooks JR, Barnard HR, Coulombe R, McDonnell JJ (2009) Ecohydrologic separation of water between trees and streams in a Mediterranean climate. Nat Geosci 3:100–104
Busch DE, Ingraham NL, Smith SD (1992) Water uptake in woody riparian phreatophytes of the southwestern United States: a stable isotope study. Ecol Appl 2:450–459
Cabangon RJ, Tuong TP, Castillo EG, Bao LX, Lu G, Wang G, Cui Y, Bouman BAM, Li Y, Chen C (2004) Effect of irrigation method and N-fertilizer management on rice yield, water productivity and nutrient-use efficiencies in typical lowland rice conditions in China. Paddy Water Environ 2:195–206
Chen SK, Liu CW (2002) Analysis of water movement in paddy rice fields (I) experimental studies. J Hydrol 260:206–215
Dawson TE, Ehleringer JR (1991) Streamside trees that do not use stream water. Nature 350:335–337
Dawson TE, Simonin KA (2011) The roles of stable isotopes in forest hydrology and biogeochemistry. For Hydrol Biogeochem 216:137–161
Dawson TE, Mambelli S, Plamboeck AH, Templer PH, Tu KP (2002) Stable isotopes in plant ecology. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 33:507–559
Ellsworth PZ, Williams DG (2007) Hydrogen isotope fractionation during water uptake by woody xerophytes. Plant Soil 291:93–107
February EC, Higgins SI, Newton R, West AG (2007a) Tree distribution on a steep environmental gradient in an arid savanna. J Biogeogr 34:270–278
February EC, West AG, Newton RJ (2007b) The relationship between rainfall, water source and growth for an endangered tree. Austral Ecol 32:397–402
Janssen M, Lennartz B (2007) Horizontal and vertical water and solute fluxes in paddy rice fields. Soil Tillage Res 94:133–141
Janssen M, Lennartz B (2009) Water losses through paddy bunds: methods, experimental data, and simulation studies. J Hydrol 369:142–153
Li YH, Barker R (2004) Increasing water productivity for paddy irrigation in China. Paddy Water Environ 2:187–193
Liu WJ, Liu WY, Li PJ, Duan WP, Li HM (2010) Dry season water uptake by two dominant canopy tree species in a tropical seasonal rainforest of Xishuangbanna, SW China. Agric For Meteorol 150:380–388
Lu G, Cabangon R, Tuong T, Belder P, Bouman B, Castillo E (2002) The effects of irrigation management on yield and water productivity of inbred, hybrid and aerobic rice varieties. In: Bouman B, Hengsdijk H, Hardy B, Bindraban P, Tuong T, Ladha J (eds) Water-wise rice production. Proceedings of an international workshop on water-wise rice production, 8–11 April 2002. International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, pp 15–28
Nie YP, Chen HS, Wang KL, Yang J (2012) Water source utilization by woody plants growing on dolomite outcrops and nearby soils during dry seasons in karst region of Southwest China. J Hydrol 420–421:264–274
Peng H, Mayer B, Harris S, Roy KH (2004) A 10-yr record of stable isotope ratios of hydrogen and oxygen in precipitation at Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Tellus B 56:147–159
Phillips DL, Gregg JW (2003) Source partitioning using stable isotopes: coping with too many sources. Oecologia 136:261–269
Schwinning S, Ehleringer JR (2001) Water use trade-offs and optimal adaptations to pulse-driven arid ecosystems. J Ecol 89:464–480
Shi QH, Zeng XC, Li MY, Tan XM, Xu FF (2002) Effects of different water management practices on rice growth. In: Bouman B, Hengsdijk H, Hardy B, Bindraban P, Tuong T, Ladha J (eds) Water-wise rice production. Proceedings of an international workshop on water-wise rice production, 8–11 April 2002. International Rice Research Institute, Los Banos, pp 8–11
Soil Survey Staff (2010) Keys to soil taxonomy, 11th edn. USDA
Sulzman EW (2007) Stable isotope chemistry and measurement: a primer. In: Michener R, Lajtha K (eds) Stable isotopes in ecology and environmental science. Blackwell Publishing, Boston, pp 1–21
Thorburn P, Walker G (1993) The source of water transpired by Eucalyptus camaldulensis: soil, groundwater, or streams. In: Stable isotopes and plant carbon–water relations. Academic Press, San Diego, pp 511–527
Tuong TP, Bouman B, Mortimer M (2005) More rice, less water-integrated approaches for increasing water productivity in irrigated rice-based systems in Asia. Plant Prod Sci 8:231–241
Wang P, Song XF, Han DM, Zhang YH, Liu X (2010) A study of root water uptake of crops indicated by hydrogen and oxygen stable isotopes: a case in Shanxi Province, China. Agric Water Manag 97:475–482
Wang Y, Zhang B, Lin L, Zepp H (2011) Agroforestry system reduces subsurface lateral flow and nitrate loss in Jiangxi Province, China. Agric Ecosyst Environ 140:441–453
West AG, Patrickson SJ, Ehleringer JR (2006) Water extraction times for plant and soil materials used in stable isotope analysis. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 20:1317–1321
Xu Q, Li H, Chen J, Cheng X, Liu S, An S (2011) Water use patterns of three species in subalpine forest, Southwest China: the deuterium isotope approach. Ecohydrology 4:236–244
Yang CM, Yang LZ, Yang YM, Ouyang Z (2004) Rice root growth and nutrient uptake as influenced by organic manure in continuously and alternately flooded paddy soils. Agric Water Manag 70:67–81
Yeh HF, Lee CH, Hsu KC (2011) Oxygen and hydrogen isotopes for the characteristics of groundwater recharge: a case study from the Chih-Pen Creek basin, Taiwan. Environ Earth Sci 62:393–402
Zhang QF (2007) Strategies for developing green super rice. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:16402–16409
Zhang CZ, Zhang JB, Zhao BZ, Zhu AN, Zhang H, Huang P, Li XP (2011a) Coupling a two-tip linear mixing model with a δD–δ18O plot to determine water sources consumed by maize during different growth stages. Field Crop Res 123:196–205
Zhang YC, Shen YJ, Sun HY, Gates JB (2011b) Evapotranspiration and its partitioning in an irrigated winter wheat field: a combined isotopic and micrometeorologic approach. J Hydrol 408:203–211
Zhang ZB, Peng X, Wang LL, Zhao QG, Lin H (2013) Temporal changes in shrinkage behavior of two paddy soils under alternative flooding and drying cycles and its consequence on percolation. Geoderma 192:12–20
Zhao LJ, Xiao HL, Zhou MX, Cheng GD, Wang LX, Yin L, Ren J (2011) Factors controlling spatial and seasonal distributions of precipitation δ18O in China. Hydrol Process 26:143–152
Acknowledgments
This work was funded by the National Key Technology R&D Program of China (2011BAD31B04, 2011BAD41B01) and Natural Science Foundation of China (41171180). Dr. Peng gratefully thanks the “100 Talents Program” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shen, Y.J., Zhang, Z.B., Gao, L. et al. Evaluating contribution of soil water to paddy rice by stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen. Paddy Water Environ 13, 125–133 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-013-0414-y
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-013-0414-y