Guo Yao, Fan Hong, Li Pan, Wei Jingui, Qiu Hailong
College of Life Sciences, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
Plants (Basel). 2023 Mar 17;12(6):1358. doi: 10.3390/plants12061358.
Surface mulch is an efficient plant production technique widely used in arid and water-scarce areas. In this study, a field experiment was conducted to determine whether plastic film combined with wheat straw returning could boost grain yield of maize via optimizing photosynthetic physiological characteristics and coordinating yield components. The results showed that no tillage with wheat straw mulching and straw standing treatments had better regulation on photosynthetic physiological characteristics and had a greater impact on the increase in grain yield than conventional tillage with wheat straw incorporation and without wheat straw returning (the control treatment) in plastic film-mulched maize. Meanwhile, no tillage with wheat straw mulching had a relatively higher yield than no tillage with wheat straw standing through better regulation of photosynthetic physiological characteristics. No tillage with wheat straw mulching decreased the leaf area index (LAI) and leaf area duration (LAD) of maize before the VT stage and maintained higher LAI and LAD after the VT stage, which effectively regulated the growth and development of maize at early and late stages of development. From VT to R4 stage of maize, no tillage with wheat straw mulching had greater chlorophyll relative content, net photosynthetic rate, and transpiration rate by 7.9-17.5%, 7.7-19.2%, and 5.5-12.1% than the control, respectively. In addition, leaf water use efficiency was increased by 6.2-6.7% from the R2 to R4 stage of no tillage with wheat straw mulching in comparison to the control treatment. Thus, no tillage with wheat straw mulching had a greater grain yield of maize by 15.6% than the control, and the high yield was attributed to the synchronous increase and cooperative development of ear number, grain number per ear, and 100-grain weight. Collectively, no tillage with wheat straw mulching had a positive effect on regulating the photosynthetic physiological traits and can be recommended to enhance the grain yield of maize in arid conditions.
地表覆盖是一种在干旱缺水地区广泛应用的高效植物生产技术。本研究通过田间试验，探讨塑料薄膜与小麦秸秆还田相结合是否能通过优化光合生理特性和协调产量构成因素来提高玉米产量。结果表明，在覆膜玉米中，免耕秸秆覆盖和留茬处理对光合生理特性的调控效果优于传统翻耕秸秆混入和不秸秆还田处理（对照处理），对提高玉米产量的影响更大。同时，免耕秸秆覆盖处理通过更好地调控光合生理特性，其产量相对高于免耕留茬处理。免耕秸秆覆盖处理降低了玉米拔节期前的叶面积指数（LAI）和叶面积持续期（LAD），并在拔节期后维持了较高的LAI和LAD，有效调控了玉米生育前期和后期的生长发育。在玉米拔节期至乳熟末期，免耕秸秆覆盖处理的叶绿素相对含量、净光合速率和蒸腾速率分别比对照高7.9 - 17.5%、7.7 - 19.2%和5.5 - 12.1%。此外，与对照处理相比，免耕秸秆覆盖处理在玉米吐丝期至乳熟末期的叶片水分利用效率提高了6.2 - 6.7%。因此，免耕秸秆覆盖处理的玉米产量比对照高15.6%，高产归因于穗数、穗粒数和百粒重的同步增加和协同发展。总体而言，免耕秸秆覆盖对调控光合生理性状具有积极作用，可推荐用于提高干旱条件下玉米的产量。
