Reduced plastic film mulching under zero tillage boosts water use efficiency and soil health in semiarid rainfed maize field

Reducing the amount of plastic film while maintaining high water use efficiency & soil health is a huge challenge globally. A two-year field investigation showed that full and half plastic film mulching harvested greater inseason rainfall infiltration into soils, and significantly greater grain yield and water use efficiency under the no-tillage conditions than under the tillage conditions. Among the no-tillage treatments, half plastic film mulching resulted in significantly greater soil light fraction organic carbon by 42.7% and particulate organic carbon by 41.2% than full plastic film mulching respectively, due to its enhanced extramatrical hyphal length, glomalin production and root biomass input. Owing to higher water availability, soil nutrient uptake was accordingly enhanced under no-tillage. This phenomenon was tightly correlated with the improved abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Therefore, it might be feasible and efficient to massively reduce plastic mulching but improve water use efficiency and soil health in semiarid environment.