LINKING CROP WATER PRODUCTIVITY TO SOIL PHYSICAL, CHEMICAL AND MICROBIAL PROPERTIES

Highlights

• The linkage between crop water productivity and soil properties were summarized

• Knowledge of soil microbial effects on crop water productivity is still limited

• Knowledge of interactions of soil factors on crop water productivity is still limited

Abstract

Agriculture uses a large proportion of global and regional water resources. Due to the rapid increase of population in the world, the increasing competition for water resources has led to an urgent need in increasing crop water productivity for agricultural sustainability. As the medium for crop growth, soils and their properties are important in affecting crop water productivity. This review examines the effects of soil physical, chemical, and microbial properties on crop water productivity and the quantitative relationships between them. A comprehensive view of these relationships may provide important insights for soil and water management in arable land for agriculture in the future.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

crop water productivity / crop yield / soil chemical properties / soil microbial properties / soil physical properties / water consumption

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51725904, 51861125103), the Research Projects of Agricultural Public Welfare Industry in China (201503125), and the Discipline Innovative Engineering Plan (111 Program, B14002). Di Wu appreciates the Chinese Scholarship Council for supporting her study at the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Di Wu, Allan A. Andales, Hui Yang, Qing Sun, Shichao Chen, Xiuwei Guo, Donghao Li, and Taisheng Du declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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The Author(s) 2020. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)