The Interrelationship Between Water Use Efficiency and Radiation Use Efficiency Under Progressive Soil Drying in Maize

作者：Huailin Zhou, Guangsheng Zhou, Li Zhou, Xiaomin Lv, Yuhe Ji, Mengzi Zhou · 发表于：Frontiers in Plant Science · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.3389/fpls.2021.794409 · 被引用次数：23 · 研究领域：Rice Cultivation and Yield Improvement、Crop Yield and Soil Fertility、Agriculture, Soil, Plant Science

The maximizing of water use efficiency (WUE) and radiation use efficiency (RUE) is vital to improving crop production in dryland farming systems. However, the fundamental question as to the association of WUE with RUE and its underlying mechanism under limited-water availability remains contentious. Here, a two-year field trial for maize designed with five progressive soil drying regimes applied at two different growth stages (three-leaf stage and seven-leaf stage) was conducted during the 2013-2014 growing seasons. Both environmental variables and maize growth traits at the leaf and canopy levels were measured during the soil drying process. The results showed that leaf WUE increased with irrigation reduction at the early stage, while it decreased with irrigation reduction at the later stage. Leaf RUE thoroughly decreased with irrigation reduction during the progressive soil drying process. Aboveground biomass (AGB), leaf area index (LAI), a fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR), and light extinction coefficient (k) of the maize canopy were significantly decreased by water deficits regardless of the growth stages when soil drying applied. The interrelationships between WUE and RUE were linear across the leaf and canopy scales under different soil drying patterns. Specifically, a positive linear relationship between WUE and RUE are unexpectedly found when soil drying was applied at the three-leaf stage, while it turned out to be negative when soil d...