Irrigation-soil interaction study enlightens arid-region farming

LANZHOU, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers have newly unveiled the effects of irrigation-soil texture interaction in agricultural production in arid regions, according to the Northwest Institute of Eco-environment and Resources (NIEER) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

This new study sheds light on the sustainable development of arid agricultural ecosystems, according to the NIEER.

Conducted by researchers at NIEER, the study has been online published in the journal Soil & Tillage Research.

In the oasis agricultural ecosystem of arid areas, irrigation methods affect soil moisture conditions and alter the process of water and salt transport, regulate the structure and functional characteristics of microbial communities, and influence key biogeochemical cycling processes such as carbon and nitrogen, according to Yang Rong, a NIEER researcher and leader of the study.

Furthermore, soil texture is a key factor in modulating how these processes respond to irrigation methods. It is significant to explore how irrigation practices interact with soil texture and influence microbiomes and nutrient cycling, thereby finding ways to improve field irrigation strategies in arid regions, Yang added.

Researchers conducted the farmland positioning monitoring experiments at the scientific observation and research station of the farmland ecosystem in Linze County, northwest China's Gansu Province, from 2023 to 2024.

They targeted investigating the effects of different modes of irrigation, namely flood, combined, and mulched drip irrigation, on microbial ecological adaptations and nutrient sequestration in sandy, sandy loam, and loam soils.

They systematically studied the soil microbial ecological adaptation and nutrient retention mechanism under the interaction of soil texture and irrigation.

Compared with traditional flood irrigation, mulched drip irrigation significantly enriched the soil microbial diversity, the proportion of eutrophic groups, network complexity, and nutrient cycling gene abundance by 25.5 percent, 20.4 percent, 106.8 percent, and 93.5 percent, respectively, according to the study.

The study showed that irrigation, soil texture, and their interactions explained between 55.59 percent and 68.96 percent of the microbial assembly and functional variation.

The results demonstrated that microbial assembly and functions driven by the irrigation-texture interactions serve as the key mediators of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus sequestration.

"The new study extends insights into the microbiological driving mechanism of soil nutrient sequestration in arid agricultural ecosystems," said Yang.

Therefore, the optimization of irrigation management strategies in arid regions should be combined with soil texture to fully exploit the potential of microorganisms and promote the long-term sustainability of agricultural ecosystems, Yang added. ■