Deficit irrigation alleviates the increase in soil salinity content in saline-alkali regions of China and improves irrigation water productivity: A meta-analysis

作者：Dehao Lu, Liu Liu, Yanling Bai, Qiang An, Yongming Cheng, Guanhua Huang · 发表于：Agricultural Water Management · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109872 · 被引用次数：9 · 研究领域：Rice Cultivation and Yield Improvement、Irrigation Practices and Water Management、Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics

Saline-alkali land, an important reserve of arable land resource, is key to ensuring food security and sustainable agricultural development. Deficit irrigation (DEI) presents a feasible solution to alleviate water scarcity and develop saline-alkali land. However, the effects of DEI on soil salinity content, crop yield, and irrigation water productivity (IWP) in saline-alkali regions remain unclear. This study conducted a meta-analysis of 1108 comparisons from 39 studies on DEI in saline-alkali regions of China. In addition, machine learning was used to assess the effects of agronomic practices and environmental factors on soil salinity content, crop yield, and IWP, and to explore suitable DEI strategies for crop cultivation in these regions. It was found that, although DEI increased soil salinity content by 2.52 % and decreased crop yield by 6.77 % compared with full irrigation (FUI), it increased IWP significantly by 29.77 %. Overall, the results varied, depending on irrigation practices (such as irrigation proportion, salinity of irrigation water and irrigation method), climatic conditions (such as precipitation, temperature and evaporation), soil conditions (soil properties, groundwater depth and initial soil salinity) and crop types (four major crops: maize, wheat, cotton and oil sunflower). In order to maximize the trade-off effects, we found that DEI is most appropriate for regions where annual precipitation exceeds 200 mm and soil bulk density of 1.45–1.55 g/cm 3 . Com...