Optimized ridge-furrow technology with biochar amendment for alfalfa yield enhancement and soil erosion reduction based on a structural equation model on sloping land

作者：Xiaole Zhao, Erastus Mak‐Mensah, Wucheng Zhao, Qi Wang, Xujiao Zhou, Dengkui Zhang, Jinhui Zhu, Wenjia Qi, Qinglin Liu, Xiaoling Li, Xuchun Li, Bing Liu · 发表于：Agricultural Water Management · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1016/j.agwat.2024.108866 · 被引用次数：19 · 研究领域：Rice Cultivation and Yield Improvement、Soil erosion and sediment transport、Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics

Water scarcity and water-related soil erosion are severely exacerbated by inappropriate human activities and global climate change. Hence, to find a suitable technology to mitigate drought and soil erosion, three consecutive field experiments were conducted to explore the impact of ridge-furrow cropping with biochar amendment on soil water storage, runoff, sediment yield, soil nutrient losses, alfalfa (Medicago sativa L) fodder yield, crop water productivity (WPc), and economic benefit from 2019 to 2021. This experiment was conducted in a split-plot design, taking biochar amendment patterns (no biochar amendment and biochar amendment at a rate of 3× 104 kg ha−1) as a main plot and ridge-furrow technologies (traditional planting, open-ridging, and tied-ridging) as a split-plot. The combination of biochar amendment with ridge-furrow technology, especially tied-ridging technology, increased soil water storage, and captured runoff, sediment, and related soil nutrient losses, consequently increasing alfalfa fodder yield, WPc, and income. During this study, compared to traditional planting, open-ridging depicted an increase in soil water storage by a range of 9.8–39.6 mm, an alfalfa fodder yield boost ranging from 9.8% to 38.6%, and a WPc increase ranging from 0.1 to 16.5 kg ha−1 mm−1. On the other hand, tied-ridging showed greater improvements with soil water storage increasing by 29.1–65.1 mm, alfalfa fodder yield growing by 11.6–44.4%, and WPc advancing by 0.9–17.5 kg ha−1 mm−1....