Effects of uniconazole with or without micronutrient on the lignin biosynthesis,lodging resistance,and winter wheat production in semiarid regions

Lodging stress results in grain yield and quality reduction in wheat. Uniconazole, a potential plant growth regulator significantly enhances lignin biosynthesis and thus provides mechanical strength to plants in order to cope with lodging stress. A field study was conducted during the 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 growing seasons, to investigate the effects of uniconazole sole application or with micronutrient on the lignin biosynthesis, lodging resistance, and production of winter wheat. In the first experiment, uniconazole at concentrations of 0(CK), 15(US1), 30(US2), and 45(US3) mg L^-1 was applied as sole seed soaking, while in the second experiment with manganese(Mn) at concentration of 0.06 g L^-1 Mn, 0.06 g L^-1 Mn+ 15 mg L^-1 uniconazole(UMS1), 0.06 g L^-1 Mn+30 mg L^-1 uniconazole(UMS2), and 0.06 g L^-1 Mn+45 mg L^-1 uniconazole(UMS3), respectively. Uniconazole sole application or with micronutrient significantly increased the lignin content by improving the lignin-related enzyme activities of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase, tyrosine ammonialyase, and peroxidase, ameliorating basal internode characteristics, and breaking strength. The spike length, spike diameter, spikes/plant, weight/spike, yield/spike, and grain yield increased and then decreased with uniconazole application at a higher concentration, where their maximum values were recorded with UMS2 and US2 treatments. The lignin accumulation was positively correlated with lignin-related enzyme activities and breaking strength while, negatively correlated with lodging rate. Uniconazole significantly improved the lignin biosynthesis, lodging resistance, and grain yield of winter wheat and the treatments which showed the greatest effects were uniconazole seed soaking with micronutrient at a concentration of 30 mg L^-1 and 0.06 g L^-1 , and uniconazole sole seed soaking at a concentration of 30 mg L^-1 .

Invariance in the Seasonal Median Dates for Mono-Modal Monsoonal Rainfall Distribution over the Semi-Arid Ecotone of Sub-Saharan West Africa

Seasonal distribution of mono-modal, monsoonal rainfall across the semi-arid ecotone of sub-Saharan of West Africa is highly variable and unpredictable. The ever-present risk of drought and crop failure in this environment often results in food shortages that are met by emergency food aid. Humanitarian assistance planners would be better prepared for such interventions in a timely manner if they have reliable indicators that forewarn the impending failure of the rains. A good indicator would be a characteristic of the seasonal rainfall distribution that can be shown to be reasonably invariant over time and space. The objective of this study is to investigate whether such invariance existed for the seasonal median date (meaning the date when 50% of the seasonal total occurs). Such invariance is expected since the sun’s cyclic declination forces the advance and retreat of the Inter-tropical Front over West Africa. We examined the statistical properties of the seasonal median date for 1349 station-years of rainfall records for 30 rainfall stations in Burkina Faso and Niger with coordinates ranging from 9.88° to 18.5° north latitude and -4.77° to 13.2° longitude. The results showed that the median date was quite narrowly distributed over years with rather weak dependence on geographical coordinates. It can therefore be used as a reasonable ex-ante indicator of the success or failure of the rains as the rainy season progress.

Newly-simplified method for hydrauli design of micro-irrigation laterals based on emission uniformity

An analytical approach was developed to design a single uniformly sloping lateral in the micro-irrigation systems.Emission uniformity was used as the water application uniformity criterion.Energy relations based on the energy-gradient-line approach were revamped to account for the spatial variance of emitter outflow and the emitter connections local energy losses.Four pressure head grade line profiles were distinguished:uphill,horizontal,gentle downhill and steep downhill.Analytical expressions of emission uniformity by hydraulic variation for each pressure profile were developed based on the design variables:length and diameter of lateral,emitter spacing,emitter flow equation parameters,equivalent length characterizing local losses and ground slope.The design conditions for selecting emitter type,the number of emitters per plant and designing the diameter of the uphill and steep downhill laterals were also developed.The nonlinear equations for determining lateral diameter and lateral length were solved iteratively by using the built-in root-finding function of(Tools>Goal Seek…)in the calculation spreadsheet of Microsoft Excel.The procedures also provide the options to fix the design lateral diameter with the commercial standard size or fix the design lateral length based on the field size.The operating inlet pressure and maximum amplitude of the pressure head throughout the lateral could also be determined easily by the procedure.Two numerical applications with various slope combinations indicate that the proposed analytical approach produces results close to the accurate stepwise numerical solutions.In comparison with Keller method,the proposed approach could produce more appropriate designs.

Effects of restoration modes on the spatial distribution of soil physical properties after land consolidation: a multifractal analysis

Soil physical properties(SPP)are considered to be important indices that reflect soil structure,hydrological conditions and soil quality.It is of substantial interest to study the spatial distribution of SPP owing to the high spatial variability caused by land consolidation under various land restoration modes in excavated farmland in the loess hilly area of China.In our study,three land restoration modes were selected including natural restoration land(NR),alfalfa land(AL)and maize land(ML).Soil texture composition,including the contents of clay,silt and sand,field capacity(FC),saturated conductivity(Ks)and bulk density(BD)were determined using a multifractal analysis.SPP were found to possess variable characteristics,although land consolidation destroyed the soil structure and decreased the spatial autocorrelation.Furthermore,SPP varied with land restoration and could be illustrated by the multifractal parameters of D1,ΔD,ΔαandΔf in different modes of land restoration.Owing to multiple compaction from large machinery in the surface soil,soil particles were fine-grained and increased the spatial variability in soil texture composition under all the land restoration modes.Plough numbers and vegetative root characteristics had the most significant impacts on the improvement in SPP,which resulted in the best spatial distribution characteristics of SPP found in ML compared with those in AL and NR.In addition,compared with ML,Δαvalues of NR and AL were 4.9-and 3.0-fold that of FC,respectively,andΔαvalues of NR and AL were 2.3-and 1.5-fold higher than those of Ks,respectively.These results indicate that SPP can be rapidly improved by increasing plough numbers and planting vegetation types after land consolidation.Thus,we conclude that ML is an optimal land restoration mode that results in favorable conditions to rapidly improve SPP.

Highlights of special issue on ‘Agriculture in Water-Limited Areas'

Agriculture in water-limited areas is an integral part of regional and global food security.Indeed,food production has increased dramatically in the arid and semiarid areas thanks to the advances in agronomy,genetics and engineering.Irrigation technology,fertilizers and pesticides,and soil management have revolutionized agriculture in water-limited areas.However,water scarcity remains the greatest challenge for agriculture and usually is also the cause for other socioeconomic and environmental problems.Moreover,water scarcity in an area often coexists with low water

Improving maize growth and development simulation by integrating temperature compensatory effect under plastic film mulching into the AquaCrop model

Temperature compensatory effect, which quantifies the increase in cumulative air temperature from soil temperature increase caused by mulching, provides an effective method for incorporating soil temperature into crop models. In this study, compensated temperature was integrated into the AquaCrop model to investigate the capability of the compensatory effect to improve assessment of the promotion of maize growth and development by plastic film mulching(PM). A three-year experiment was conducted from2014 to 2016 with two maize varieties(spring and summer) and two mulching conditions(PM and non-mulching(NM)), and the AquaCrop model was employed to reproduce crop growth and yield responses to changes in NM, PM, and compensated PM. A marked difference in soil temperature between NM and PM was observed before 50 days after sowing(DAS) during three growing seasons. During sowing–emergence and emergence–tasseling, the increase in air temperature was proportional to the compensatory coefficient, with spring maize showing a higher compensatory temperature than summer maize. Simulation results for canopy cover(CC) were generally in good agreement with the measurements, whereas predictions of aboveground biomass and grain yield under PM indicated large underestimates from 60 DAS to the end of maturity. Simulations of spring maize biomass and yield showed general increase based on temperature compensation, accompanied by improvement in modeling accuracy, with RMSEs decreasing from 2.5 to 1.6 t ha^(-1)and from 4.1 t to 3.4 t ha^(-1). Improvement in biomass and yield simulation was less pronounced for summer than for spring maize, implying that crops grown during low-temperature periods would benefit more from the compensatory effect. This study demonstrated the effectiveness of the temperature compensatory effect to improve the performance of the AquaCrop model in simulating maize growth under PM practices.

Ephemeral gully recognition and accuracy evaluation using deep learning in the hilly and gully region of the Loess Plateau in China

Ephemeral gullies are widely distributed in the hilly and gully region of the Loess Plateau and play a unique role in the slope gully erosion system.Rapid and accurate identification of ephemeral gullies impacts the distribution law and development trend of soil erosion on the Loess Plateau.Deep learning algorithms can quickly and accurately process large data samples that recognize ephemeral gullies from remote sensing images.Here,we investigated ephemeral gullies in the Zhoutungou watershed in the hilly and gully region of the Loess Plateau in China using satellite and unmanned aerial vehicle images and combined a deep learning image semantic segmentation model to realize automatic recognition and feature extraction.Using Accuracy,Precision,Recall,F1value,and AUC,we compared the ephemeral gully recognition results and accuracy evaluation of U-Net,R2U-Net,and SegNet image semantic segmentation models.The SegNet model was ranked first,followed by the R2U-Net and U-Net models,for ephemeral gully recognition in the hilly and gully region of the Loess Plateau.The ephemeral gully length and width between predicted and measured values had RMSE values of 6.78 m and 0.50 m,respectively,indicating that the model has an excellent recognition effect.This study identified a fast and accurate method for ephemeral gully recognition in the hilly and gully region of the Loess Plateau based on remote sensing images to provide an academic reference and practical guidance for soil erosion monitoring and slope and gully management in the Loess Plateau region.

Effects of mulching for water conservation on soil carbon,nitrogen and biological properties

The effect of mulching with straw, white plastic film and black plastic film for improving soil water storage and on the soil properties was examined in a wheat-maize rotation system on Loess soil in northwestern China. All the mulches improved the water storage to some extent and led to warmer soils. However, the organic C and total N contents of the soils declined significantly under the mulches, particularly the plastic film mulches,and this could have long-term detrimental effects on soil quality and the sustainability of the some mulching practices.

Model of soybean NDVI change based on time series

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI)has been found to have good correlations with many physical properties of soybean surfaces.Due to the factors of air temperature,humidity,solar radiation,soil moisture,etc.,NDVI of soybean varies dynamically in a day.The establishment of the soybean NDVI prediction model at different times in a day can effectively modify this variation.The soybean NDVI values are continuously monitored in hours during soybean seeding,flowering&podding and maturating stages by way of Green Seeker.Results show that the trend of NDVI change every day in the three stages is taken on as a reverse parabola.The NDVI value reaches to the maximum at 8 am or 9 am and decreases to its minimum at 2 pm before a moderate rise.A model for intraday and long-term NDVI change for soybean is built.The test of the model with independent data indicates that the precision meets the demands,with the root mean square error(RMSE)of each day being 3.95,5.45 and 2.86 for the seeding stage,the bean podding stage and the maturation period,respectively.The prediction RMSEs of the soybean NDVI model for soybeans of the three stages for the fifth day are 5.75,2.65 and 5.51,respectively and the prediction RMSEs for the sixth day are 9.74,2.82 and 14.04,respectively according to the data from the first four days.

Carbon payments in the Guanzhong–Tianshui region to control land degradation

Carbon trading and carbon offset markets are potential policy options for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. A price on carbon is expected to generate demand for carbon offsets. In a market-based framework, the carbon price should be high enough to compensate for opportunity costs. We studied a highly-modified agricultural system in the Guanzhong–Tianshui economic region of China that is typical of many temperate agricultural zones in western China. We quantified the economic returns from agriculture and from carbon plantings(both monoculture and ecological plantings) under five carbon-price scenarios. The mean carbon sequestration is 34 Mg·hm^(–2)·a^(–1), and the average annual payment increased to 1146 CNY·hm^(–2) at a medium carbon price of 50 CNY·Mg^(–1) CO_2^(–e). Thus, areas of high priority for conservation and restoration may be restored relatively cheaply in the presence of a carbon market.Overall, however, less carbon is sequestered by ecological plantings(i.e., mixed native trees and shrubs) compared to agriculture.

在碳隐遁，土壤保留和水之间的交易在中国的 Guanzhong-Tianshui 经济区域让步

Natural ecosystems provide human society with very important products and services. With the rapid increase in population and the over-exploitation of natural resources, humans are continually enhancing the production of some services at the expense of others. This paper estimates changes in ecosystem services, and the relationship between these services in the Guanzhong-Tianshui Economic Region of China. These ecosystem changes are of great significance to the sustainable development of this economic region. The concept of production possibility frontier （PPF） is applied to evaluate the trade-offs and synergy between carbon sequestration, water yield and soil retention. Three land use strategy scenarios - planning, exploitation and protection - are applied to evaluate potential changes in ecosystem services. This study reveals noticeable trade-offs between carbon sequestration, soil retention and water yield, with synergy between carbon sequestration and soil retention. There are synergies between carbon sequestration, water yield and soil retention in the three scenarios. The protection scenario is the most favourable land use strategy for regulating ecosystem service capacity. This scenario results in the highest carbon sequestration, water yield and soil retention. The results could have implications for natural capital and ecosystem services planning, management and land use decision-making.