Sustainable irrigation based on co-regulation of soil water supply and atmospheric evaporative demand

Irrigation is an important adaptation to reduce crop yield loss due to water stress from both soil water deficit (low soil moisture) and atmospheric aridity (high vapor pressure deficit, VPD). Traditionally, irrigation has primarily focused on soil water deficit. Observational evidence demonstrates...

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Published inNature communications Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 5549 - 10
Main Authors Zhang, Jingwen, Guan, Kaiyu, Peng, Bin, Pan, Ming, Zhou, Wang, Jiang, Chongya, Kimm, Hyungsuk, Franz, Trenton E, Grant, Robert F, Yang, Yi, Rudnick, Daran R, Heeren, Derek M, Suyker, Andrew E, Bauerle, William L, Miner, Grace L
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Nature Publishing Group 20.09.2021
Nature Publishing Group UK
Nature Portfolio
Subjects
Agricultural production
Aridity
Cereal crops
Climatic conditions
Crop yield
Cropping systems
Crops
Depletion
Ecosystem models
Irrigation
Irrigation water
Moisture content
Soil dynamics
Soil management
Soil moisture
Soil stresses
Soil water
Stomata
Stomatal conductance
Sustainability
Vapor pressure
Water deficit
Water management
Water stress
Water supply
Water use
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Summary:Irrigation is an important adaptation to reduce crop yield loss due to water stress from both soil water deficit (low soil moisture) and atmospheric aridity (high vapor pressure deficit, VPD). Traditionally, irrigation has primarily focused on soil water deficit. Observational evidence demonstrates that stomatal conductance is co-regulated by soil moisture and VPD from water supply and demand aspects. Here we use a validated hydraulically-driven ecosystem model to reproduce the co-regulation pattern. Specifically, we propose a plant-centric irrigation scheme considering water supply-demand dynamics (SDD), and compare it with soil-moisture-based irrigation scheme (management allowable depletion, MAD) for continuous maize cropping systems in Nebraska, United States. We find that, under current climate conditions, the plant-centric SDD irrigation scheme combining soil moisture and VPD, could significantly reduce irrigation water use (-24.0%) while maintaining crop yields, and increase economic profits (+11.2%) and irrigation water productivity (+25.2%) compared with MAD, thus SDD could significantly improve water sustainability.
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ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-021-25254-7