Fifteen-year Variations of Water Use Efficiency over a Wheat-Maize Rotation Cropland in the North China Plain

Based on fifteen-year observations, we explored the interannual variations of five water use efficiency (WUE) indicators (i.e., standard ecosystem WUE (EWUE), plant-canopy WUE (PWUE), inherent WUE (IWUE), underlying WUE (uWUE) and stomatal slope (G(1))) over a typical winter wheat-summer maize rotation cropland in the North China Plain. The results showed that none of WUE indicators had a significant interannual trend. PWUE showed the lowest interannual variability and could be regarded as stationary for these two crops. G(1) was stationary for wheat which was under an essentially constant soil water condition, whereas exhibited a strong fluctuation for maize experiencing more variable soil water content (SWC) than wheat. IWUE and uWUE were non-stationary for both crops. SWC and leaf area index (LAI) dominated EWUE for maize and wheat, respectively. PWUE was dominated by the shortwave solar radiation (R-g) in maize seasons and not significantly affected by any meteorological or biophysical factors in wheat seasons. For IWUE and uWUE, air temperature (T-a) and LAI were the most important drivers in maize and wheat seasons, respectively. Atmospheric CO2 concentration (C-a) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) were not revealed as important controllers. These findings reflected that the meteorological and biophysical regulatory mechanisms of WUE indicators at the ecosystem level were quite different from that at the leaf level. But G(1) was an exception due to that for both maize and wheat, G(1) was only significantly affected by SWC. Moreover, we found that none of the remote sensing (RS)-based global products performed satisfactorily on capturing interannual variations of EWUE for both crops. These results cautioned that using these global RS-based products to explore the interannual variations of EWUE for the cropland ecosystem may lead to substantial bias.

Automated summary

Among the five water use efficiency indicators studied in a typical winter wheat-summer maize rotation cropland in the North China Plain, plant-canopy WUE showed the lowest interannual variability and could be regarded as stationary for both crops, while inherent WUE and underlying WUE were found to be non-stationary for both crops.