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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2017, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (8): 74-84.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2017074

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Water consumption characteristics and yields of fodder oat under different irrigation and nitrogen fertilization regimes in the northwest oasis irrigation area

FENG Fu-Xue1, 2, MU Ping3, ZHAO Gui-Qin1, *, CHAI Ji-Kuan1, LIU Huan1, CHEN Guo-Dong4   

  1. 1.College of Grassland Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China;
    2.College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China;
    3.College of Agronomy, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China;
    4.College of Plant Science, Tarim University, Alear 843300, China
  • Received:2017-03-02 Online:2017-08-20 Published:2017-08-20

Abstract: Irrigation and fertilization are the two most important methods to increase crop growth and yield. Understanding the water consumption characteristics and grain yield of oat (Avena sativa) under different water-nitrogen (N) regimes is useful to optimize oat cultivation. In the 2014-2015 oat growing seasons, field experiments were conducted with three irrigation levels and three N application rates to study the effects of the water-N interaction on soil water consumption in the 0-150 mm layer, soil evaporation, grain yield, and water use efficiency (WUE) of the oat variety ‘Longyan 3’. The three irrigation amounts were 270 (I1), 337.5 (I2), and 405 mm (I3) and the three N application rates were 90 (N1), 120 (N2), and 150 kg/ha (N3). The soil evaporation and the proportion of soil evaporation (E) to evapotranspiration (E/ET) decreased and then increased during the growing period. Under the same N application rate, E and its proportion of E/ET increased with increasing amounts of irrigation from the jointing to the filling stage, but decreased from the filling to the harvest stage. The oat water consumption and grain yield under a fixed N application rate were positively related to the amount of irrigation, whereas WUE was negatively related to the amount of irrigation. The highest grain yield of oat was in N3I3 (5466.0-5727.5 kg/ha), followed by N3I2 (5428.5-5678.5 kg/ha), and then N1I1 (4504.5-4804.3 kg/ha). The highest WUE was in N3I2 [(12.11-12.82 kg/(mm·ha)], followed by N3I1 [12.04-12.63 kg/(mm·ha)], and then N1I3 [9.79-10.58 kg/(mm·ha)]. The water-nitrogen interaction had significant effects on WUE and oat yield. Our results suggest that N application at 150 kg/ha combined with irrigation at 337.5 mm is a water-saving method to cultivate oat with high-yields in the Northwest Oasis area.