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The use of stable isotopes to determine optimal application of irrigation-water to a maize crop

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Abstract

Aim

Understanding the water use of a maize-based cropping systems can help people improve water management strategies. We conducted a two-year field experiment at the Shiyang River Basin to study the effect of flood irrigation on crops’ water uptake depth and estimated the reasonable irrigation amount for a maize field.

Methods

We collected water samples from the plant xylem, soil, irrigation-water, and precipitation during the crop growing season in 2018 and 2019 for hydrogen and oxygen stable isotope analysis. The Iso-Source model was used to calculate crops’ water uptake depth. We determined the irrigation depth and estimated the reasonable irrigation amount based on the soil water balance and isotope mass conservation.

Results

Maize used water from the surface 0.2 m soil layer when irrigation-water was applied. On average, only 40 ± 1% (179 mm) of the irrigation-water remained in this soil layer and an average of 24 ± 8% (124 mm) of the irrigation-water and precipitation moved below 1.0 m soil depth per year.

Conclusions

Low-volume and high-frequency irrigation strategies can reduce soil water evaporation and drainage. The amount of irrigation-water to apply is a function of the crop’s growth stage. At the jointing stage, the target is to apply water to the 0.05 m soil depth. For the heading stage, the target soil depth is 0.05 to 0.2 m, and for the filling stage, the target soil depth is 0.05 to 0.6 m. The irrigation amount corresponding to the three growth stages is 83 mm, 93 mm and 78 mm.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, stable isotope data are not publicly available due to privacy.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41867030, 41971036). The authors greatly thank the support of the aforementioned funding agency and all the stations in the observation network for having provided the data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, 967 East Road, Lanzhou, 730070, Gansu, China

    Lei Wang, Guofeng Zhu, Dongdong Qiu, Yuwei Liu, Kailiang Zhao, Liyuan Sang, Zhuanxia Zhang, Zhigang Sun, Leilei Yong & Yinying Jiao

  2. Shiyang River Ecological Environment Observation Station, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, 730070, Gansu, China

    Lei Wang, Guofeng Zhu, Dongdong Qiu, Yuwei Liu, Kailiang Zhao, Liyuan Sang, Zhuanxia Zhang, Zhigang Sun, Leilei Yong & Yinying Jiao

Authors
  1. Lei Wang
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  2. Guofeng Zhu
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  4. Yuwei Liu
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Contributions

Guofeng Zhu and Lei Wang conceived the idea of the study; Zhuanxia Zhang, Liyuan Sang and Dongdong Qiu analyzed the data; Lei Wang wrote the paper; Yinying Jiao, Leilei Yong, Zhigang Sun checked and edited Language; Yuwei Liu and Kailiang Zhao conducted experiments. All authors discussed the results and revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Guofeng Zhu.

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Wang, L., Zhu, G., Qiu, D. et al. The use of stable isotopes to determine optimal application of irrigation-water to a maize crop. Plant Soil 482, 679–696 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05720-x

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