Soil Temperature and Maize Nitrogen Uptake Improvement Under Partial Root-Zone Drying Irrigation

Soil temperature is a major effective factor on the soil and plant biological properties.Irrigation can affect soil temperature and thereby induces a temperature effect on plant growth,which may result in an economic increase due to higher yield and plant nutrition.A ?eld experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of three irrigation strategies including full irrigation(FI),partial root-zone drying(PRD) and de?cit irrigation(DI) on soil temperature and the consequent results on the grain yield and N uptake of maize(Zea May L.).Soil temperature was measured by time domain re?ectometry(TDR) sensors during the 2010 growing season.Irrigation treatments were applied from 55 to 107 d after planting.The PRD treatment caused soil temperature to be in a favorable domain for a longer period(for over 60% of the measuring dates) as a consequent result of water movement to deeper soil layers compared with the other treatments;the PRD treatment also reduced soil temperature at deeper soil depths to below the maximum favorable soil temperature for maize root growth,which resulted in deeper root penetration due to both water availability and favorable soil temperature.Compared to the FI treatment,the PRD treatment increased root water uptake by 50% and caused no signi?cant reduction in total N uptake,while this was not observed in the DI treatment partially due to the negative temperature effect of DI on plant growth,which consequently affected the water and nutrient uptake.A longer vegetation period in the PRD treatment was observed due to higher leaf N concentrations and no signi?cant reduction in maize grain yield occurred in the PRD treatment,compared with those in the FI treatment.Based on the results,having 15.2% water saving during the whole growing season,the PRD irrigation would positively affect soil temperature and the water and nutrient uptake as a consequent,which thereby would prevent signi?cant reduction in maize grain yield.