This research is a study on the relationship of irrigation water treatments and soil moisture distribution uniformity (DU). Soil moisture distribution was based on long-term data sets that were collected during wet and dry soil conditions (from permanent wilting point to field capacity) using a novel electromagnetic sensor-based platform moving inside subsurface horizontal access-tubes. The irr...

Rangeland plant productivity and species composition are affected by moisture availability and grazing intensity. We examined warmand cool-season grass productivity and relative distribution on grazed and ungrazed sites, receiving either natural precipitation or precipitation plus limited supplemental irrigation. The amount of additional water varied depending on rainfall during the previous we...

Many agricultural fields across the country have a high degree of variability in soil type and water holding capacity that affects irrigation management. One way to overcome problems associated with the field variability for improving irrigation management is to utilize a site-specific irrigation system. This system applies water to match the needs of individual management zones within a field....

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of soil moisture condition and irrigation regime on the bioelectric potential of crops with different growth stages. The bioelectric potential of broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) plants at the initial and mid-growth stages was measured under different soil moisture conditions and irrigation regimes using pot experiments. The result...

Remote sensing and crop growth models have enhanced our ability to understand soil water balance in irrigated agriculture. However, limited efforts have been made to adopt data assimilation methodologies in these linked models that use stochastic parameter estimation with genetic algorithm (GA) to improve irrigation scheduling. In this study, an innovative irrigation scheduling technique, based...

Climate change predictions for the Great Plains region of North America include reduced growing season precipitation. The consequence of this prediction for soil fauna and belowground processes was investigated at two spatial scales by integrating experimental manipulation of soil moisture levels with natural variation in soil-water availability. Experiments consisted of (1) reciprocal core tra...

Winter wheat is threatened by drought in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain of China, thus, effective water-saving irrigation practices are urgently required to maintain its high winter wheat production. This study was conducted from 2012 to 2014 to determine how supplemental irrigation (SI) affected soil moisture, photosynthesis, and dry matter (DM) production of winter wheat by measuring the moisture i...

Freshwater resources are scarce in desert regions. Highly saline groundwater of different salinity is being used to drip irrigate the Taklimakan Desert Highway Shelterbelt with a double-branch-pipe system controlling the irrigation cycles. In this study, to evaluate the dynamics of soil moisture and salinity under the current irrigation system, soil samples were collected to a 2-m depth in the ...

Vertical soil moisture profiles based on the principle of maximum entropy (POME) were validated using field and model data and applied to guide an irrigation cycle over a maize field in north central Alabama (USA). The results demonstrate that a simple two-constraint entropy model under the assumption of a uniform initial soil moisture distribution can simulate most soil moisture profiles that ...

Salinization and secondary salinization often appear after irrigation with saline water. The Taklimakan Desert Highway Shelterbelt has been irrigated with saline ground water for more than ten years; however, soil salinity in the shelterbelt has not been evaluated. The objective of this study was to analyze the spatial and temporal distribution of soil moisture and salinity in the shelterbelt s...