ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Nutrition
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1600561
Optimized irrigation and fertilization for spring maize under warming and wetting climate in a semi-arid region of China
Provisionally accepted
- 1Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, China
- 2Liangzhou District Agricultural Technology Extension Center, Wuwei, China
- 3Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 4Zhangye City Water Saving Irrigation Experimental Research Center, Zhangye, China
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Inefficient irrigation and fertilizer practices in spring maize production on the Chinese semi-arid region have led to suboptimal fertilizer utilization and yield limitations. Few studies in this region have adequately incorporated longterm meteorological data to optimize irrigation and fertilizer strategies. In this study, we employed the Root Zone Water Quality Model2 (RZWQM2) to evaluate and optimize irrigation and fertilizer management practices. The model was calibrated and validated using field experimental data during 2022-2023, including two irrigation levels (I1: 75-95% and I2: 55-75% field capacity) and three fertilizer treatments (F1/F2/F3: 234.27/157.5/157.5 kg hm -2 nitrogen fertilizer, and F3 plus 63 kg hm -2 organic fertilizer). The validated model demonstrated excellent performance in simulating key parameters, including soil water content (SWC) (mean relative error (MRE) and normalized root mean squared error (NRMSE)＜15%, consistency index (d)＞0.80), biomass (d＞0.85), grain yield (MRE＜15%), and NH4 + -N and NO3 --N content (RMSE＜10 mg kg -1 , MRE and NRMSE＜15%, d＞0.60) of spring maize in 2022 and 2023. Under simulated climate scenarios, optimal yields of 21.54 t hm -2 , 20.78 t hm -2 , and 17.57 t hm -2 were achieved using a combined application of 60% nitrogen and 40% organic fertilizer across three irrigation quotas. The irrigation quota of 250 m 3 hm -2 demonstrated superior water use efficiency (WUE), irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE), and partial factor productivity (PFP) compared to quotas of 300 m 3 hm -2 and 200 m 3 hm -2 . These findings provide valuable insights for developing sustainable irrigation and fertilizer strategies for spring maize production in a semi-arid region of China.
Keywords: RZWQM2 model, Spring maize, Irrigation quota, Fertilizer application rate, Climate scenario
Received: 11 Apr 2025; Accepted: 02 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Zhang, Sun, Li, Xue, Zhao, Liu and Yuan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rui Zhang, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, China
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