Soil water flux and water use by wheat triticum aestivum as influenced by different soil moisture regimes and nitrogen levels
Jat, R.L.; Das, D.K.
Journal of Nuclear Agriculture and Biology 12(1): 10-13
1983
ISSN/ISBN: 0379-5489 Accession: 006434232
An experiment on winter wheat (T. aestivum L.) was conducted on alluvial sandy loam soil (Typic Ustochrept) with 3 soil moisture regimes (irrigation at 0.5 (I1), 1.0 (I2) and 2.0 (I3) bar soil moisture tensions (SMT)), and 3 levels of N fertilizers (O(N0), 120 (N1) and 180 (N2) kg N/ha), to determine their influence on soil water flux at the bottom of the root zone, actual evapotranspiration (ET) and water use efficiency (WUE) by the crop. At N1 fertilizer level increasing irrigation from I3 to I1 decreased upward water flux into the root zone from 6.61 to 5.07 cm and increased ET from 31.42 to 36.84 cm, respectively. At I1 irrigation level, upward water flux and ET increased from 3.49 to 5.49 and 31.62 to 39.70 cm with the increase in N levels from N0 to N2, respectively. In all treatments except I1N0, ET exceeded soil water depletion by 1.58-4.04 cm. Maximum contribution of downward flux and ET were 12.5 and 94.3% of the total water loss in the wheat field, while upward water flux contributed up to 21.0% of the actual water use of the crop. The highest WUE in grains (152 kg/ha per cm) was obtained at I2N1 treatment combination.