Submitted to: Water
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/30/2018
Publication Date: 9/5/2018
Citation: Yang, Y., Huang, Y., Zhang, Y. 2018. Optimal irrigation mode and spatio-temporal variability characteristics of soil moisture content in different growth stages of winter wheat. Water. 10:9. https://doi.10.3390/w10091180.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/w10091180

Interpretive Summary: Management of soil moisture content is important to ensure stable growth of crops. Scientists at Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences at Jinan, Shandong, China and USDA-ARS Crop Production Systems Research Unit at Stoneville, Mississippi collaboratively worked to develop a geostatistical approach to characterize spatio-temporal variability of soil volumetric moisture content at different growth stages of winter wheat. The results indicated that the spatial correlation of soil moisture content in the early growth season is higher than in the late growth season. This research provided a method to demonstrate spatio-temporal changes of soil moisture content in the growth season for winter wheat growth management.

Technical Abstract: To advance site-specific management of soil volumetric moisture content (VMC), this study analyzed and determined the spatially varied characteristics and the storage amount of soil VMC using the method of sequential Gaussian simulation with the data measured by using a time domain reflectometry in a wheat field at different growth stages. The results of this study indicated that the spatial autocorrelation coefficients decreased through the different wheat growth stages from tillering, joint, heading, milky to harvest, and the factors, such as irrigation and precipitation, had more effect on VMC than others. This study further showed the spatio-temporal changes of VMC with a grid map to demonstrate the spatial pattern and distribution of the VMC with temporal change of different winter wheat growth stages.