Air, Soil and Water Research

Guoju Xiao^1,2, Qiang Zhang², Runyuan Wang², Yubi Yao², Hong Zhao², Huzhi Bai² and Youcai Xiong³

¹Bioengineering Institute of Ningxia University, Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region 750021, China. ²Institute of Arid Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration, Gansu Key Laboratory of Arid Climate Changes and Disaster Reduction, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730020, China. ³State Key Laboratory of Arid Agroecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 73000, China.

Abstract

In this study, a field experiment was used to evaluate a pea crop (Pisum sativum L.) at Tongwei Experimental Station (35°13′ N, 105°14′E), which is in a semiarid region of China. In this experiment, the mean daily temperature was designed to increase by 0.6–2.2 °C throughout the complete growth stage of the pea crop. When the mean daily temperature increased by approximately 2.2 °C, the water use efficiency (WUE) of the pea crop decreased by 30.4%, the duration of the growth stage was shortened by approximately 17 days, the yields were decreased by 17.5%, the number of stems with root-rot sickness were increased by 50.6%, and the input-output ratio (In/Ou) of the pea crop was 1.20. When the mean daily temperature was increased by approximately 1.4 °C, the WUE decreased by 26.1%, the growth stage duration decreased by 10 days, the yields decreased by 11.1%, the number of stems with root-rot sickness increased by 23.3%, and the input-output ratio (In/Ou) was 1.11. In addition, supplementary irrigation was found to be beneficial to the pea yields when the temperature increased. Indeed, application of 60 mm of supplementary irrigation during the complete growth stages of crops that were subjected to an increase in mean daily temperature of 0.6–2.2 °C resulted in crop yields improving by 8.3%–12.8%. Consequently, in this region, supplementary irrigation may play an important role in maintaining pea yields that would otherwise be affected by climate warming. However, the results also show that application of 60 mm of supplementary irrigation does not decrease the number of stems with root-rot sickness and that the In/Ou ratio of pea crops subjected to the same temperature conditions will increase.