Abstract:

In order to explore the effect of mulching on soil aeration under drip irrigation,field experiment was carried out in the sub-humid area of Northeast China. In the experiments,four treatments,including mulched + fertilized,non-mulched + fertilized,mulched + unfertilized and non-mulched + unfertilized drip irrigation were tested. The results showed that soil redox potential in surface layer (0-10 cm)was increased by plastic film mulching with a difference of 2.7-10.0 mV (increasing by 0.5%-2.0%) compared with no plastic film mulching. Plastic film mulching had no significant effect on the distribution of soil redox potential in 0-30 cm layer,and the redox potential of each treatment increased with the increase of depth in the range of 0-30 cm. During the maize growth period,the soil under drip irrigation belonged to strong oxidizing soil with good aeration,and the redox potential of each treatment was higher than 500 mV. Plastic film mulching significantly improved soil aeration in the early growth stage,and the soil redox potential for mulching increased by 59.5-122.9 mV (9.7%-22.8%) compared with no mulching.

Key words: redox potential, soil aeration, mulched drip irrigation, sub-humid region of Northeast China, maize