Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Peer-reviewed

Subsoiling tillage increases water-use efficiency of winter wheat by improving soil hydraulic properties associated with pore structure in the North China Plain

Yuan Meng, Xiudi Shangguan, Xin Wang, Shiyu Wei, Bowen Li, Zhendong Liu, Rui Zong, Yanli Fan, Quanqi Li

The Crop Journal · 2025

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Summary

Subsoiling is widely used to improve soil productivity in the North China Plain (NCP). However, its effects on pore network-based hydraulic properties and their relationship with water use efficiency (WUE) are far from clear. In this study, we evaluated the effects of three tillage systems (rotary tillage at 15 cm depth, RT15; subsoiling at 40 cm depth, SS40; and subsoiling at 35 cm depth, SS35) on soil pore structure, hydraulic properties, and WUE during the 2022–2024 winter wheat seasons. Results showed that the effects of SS40 and SS35 were similar in optimizing the soil pore structure and hydraulic properties. Compared with RT15, SS40 and SS35 increased the soil macroporosity ratio, the soil pore connectivity, and the soil water storage. Structural equation modeling revealed that optim

Source type
Peer-reviewed study
DOI
10.1016/j.cj.2025.05.005
Catalogue ID
SNmoef29jp-qhqhft
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