Soil Phosphorus Distribution as Affected by Irrigation Methods in Plastic Film House 1

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1 Pedosphere 21(6): , 2011 ISSN /CN /P c 2011 Soil Science Society of China Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press Soil Phosphorus Distribution as Affected by Irrigation Methods in Plastic Film House 1 YANG Li-Juan 1, ZHANG Yu-Long 1, 2, LI Fu-Sheng 2 and J. H. LEMCOFF 3 1 College of Land Recourses and Environmental Science, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang (China) 2 College of Agriculture, Guangxi University, Nanning (China) 3 Institute of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences, Volcani Center, Bet Dagan (Israel) (Received February 12, 2011; revised July 16, 2011) ABSTRACT Water-saving irrigation methods have been increasingly used for vegetable cultivation in greenhouse or plastic film house. However, there is limited information concerning the effect of water-saving irrigation methods on soil phosphorus (P) behavior. In this experiment, drip and subsurface irrigation methods were applied, with furrow irrigation method as control, in Mollic Gleysols. Soil P distribution throughout the depth was significantly affected by irrigation methods. Total, Olsen, organic and inorganic P contents were greater in the topsoil (0 10 and cm) than in the subsoil (20 30, 30 40, and cm). The Olsen P content throughout 0 60 cm layer under drip and subsurface irrigation treatments was lower than that under the furrow irrigation treatment. However, the total, organic and inorganic P contents from 20 to 60 cm under drip irrigation treatment were higher than or close to those under furrow irrigation treatment, but were lower under subsurface irrigation treatment than under furrow irrigation treatment. Under subsurface irrigation treatment, the contents of total, organic and inorganic P at the 0 10 cm layer were 78.0%, 1.3% and 3.7% greater than those at the cm layer, respectively. But Olsen P content at the cm layer was 5.7% larger than that at the 0 10 cm layer. These suggested that soil P behavior could be manipulated by soil water management to some extent. Key Words: drip irrigation, furrow irrigation, soil P forms, subsurface irrigation, tomato Citation: Yang, L. J., Zhang, Y. L., Li, F. S. and Lemcoff, J. H Soil phosphorus distribution as affected by irrigation methods in plastic film house. Pedosphere. 21(6): Protected cultivation known as greenhouse or plastic film house farming is one of the vegetable cultivation systems widely used to provide and maintain a controlled environment suitable for optimal crop production leading to maximal economic profit. This means to create an environment suitable for a better and healthy crop growth (Aldrich and Bartok, 1989). The major advantage of the protected cultivation is to maintain the production of vegetable crops throughout the year, which is not possible in the open field farming due to the low temperatures in winter, the heavy rainfalls and the strong winds in summer (Tiwari, 1996). Tomato is one of the widely grown vegetable crops in the greenhouse, and in northern China, greenhouse-grown tomato accounts for about 40% of the total vegetable production under protected cultivation. Many efforts are being made for the optimal growth, yield and quality of greenhouse-grown tomato (Harmanto et al., 2005; Cetin and Uygan, 2008). Wang et al. (2007) reported that non-pressure sub-irrigation method can improve the quality of tomato by water control, which is worth promoting in the agricultural production. Irrigation is the only way to supply water to the greenhouse-grown plants. Many studies have been done on using irrigation efficiently under protected cultivation. The application of micro-irrigation method such as drip and subsurface irrigation methods not only saves water, but also results in higher crop yields and better quality as it reduces the humidity inside the greenhouse owing to the precise application of water to the root zone of the crop (Zhuge et al., 2001; Han 1 Supported by the Liaoning Provincial Education Commission, China (No ). 2 Corresponding author. ylzsau@163.com.

2 IRRIGATION EFFECT ON SOIL P DISTRIBUTION 713 and Xu, 2003; Mahajan and Singh, 2006). Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for plant growth, so in most cases, applied P fertilizer can lead to higher yields. But over application of P is not environmentally friendly, i.e., the extra P not taken up by plants would accumulate in croplands to increase the potential of P runoff to water bodies (Fan et al., 2009), and the plant availability and use efficiency of P in cultivated soils were low (Liu et al., 2000; Park et al., 2004). Such problem is more severe in the greenhouses for vegetable production (Wang and Zhang, 2010). The rates of P transformation and transport are subjected to many factors, such as soil moisture, soil ph, organic compounds, flooding, and temperature (Havlin et al., 2005). Several authors reported that relatively high soil water content under frequent irrigation led to a greater P mobility and availability (Rauschkolb et al., 1976; Bacon and Davey, 1982; Bar-Yosef et al., 1989). Movement of soil solutes is strongly inter-linked with the movement of soil water, and the flux of soil solutes is the function of soil moisture distribution (Bar- Yosef and Bar-Tal, 1995), which is influenced by irrigation scheduling. Irrigation practices affect the leaching of N and P from the root zone (Ritter, 1980). Wang and Zhang (2010) investigated vertical distribution and plant availability of soil P under subsurface irrigation method, and suggested that P distribution in soil depth is significantly affected by the irrigation schedules, i.e., irrigation of relatively high frequency and low water quantity in each event lead to greater P availability for plant uptake. However, there have been still few reports on soil P distribution and availability with different irrigation methods under protected cultivation systems. Thus the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of different irrigation methods on the plant availability and vertical distribution of P in the soil in a plastic film house of Northeast China. MATERIAS AND METHODS Site description This study was conducted at the Experimental Farm of the Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, Northeast China (41 31 N, E, 51.6 m above sea level). The irrigation experiment of the vegetable field was established in 1997 inside a greenhouse, on a meadow brown soil (Mollic Gleysols in the FAO-UNESCO system), with high organic matter and soil viscosity-density (Shi et al., 2002). The clay mineral of the soil is mainly illite with a small presence of montmorillonite. Original soil (0 20 cm) ph was 6.80, organic matter content 22.7 g kg 1, total N 1.30 g kg 1, total P 1.86 g kg 1, total K 17.6 g kg 1, available N 96.9 mg kg 1, available P mg kg 1, available K mg kg 1, bulk density 1.30 g cm 3, porosity 51.0% and field water capacity 31.6%. Main drying curve of soil-water characteristics was measured between 0 and 100 kpa using water head and overpressure (ceramic plates) methods (Zhang, 1993), As shown in Fig. 1, these equations for the soil depths of 0 10, 10 20, 20 30, and cm were y =51.79x 0.226, y =47.93x 0.252, y =43.72x 0.163, y =45.49x and y =42.22x 0.117, respectively. Fig. 1 Soil water characteristic curves of different depths in the meadow soil. Experimental design and layout There were three irrigation treatments, i.e., drip irrigation, subsurface irrigation and furrow irrigation. Due to irrigation constrains, each treatment had two plots, with an area of 16.5 m 2 each, which was divided into two subplots. The main large plots of the experiment were laid out under a randomized block design. Plastic film was vertically placed to a depth of 100 cm to prevent water and nutrient flow between the plots. In the subsurface irrigation method, all pipes were placed at the depth of 30 cm, with a discharge rate per linear meter of 4.2 L h 1. Pipes used in this experiment were made of black polyethylene with numerous micropores (Jiyuan Irrigation Co., China). In the drip irrigation method, drip pipes were placed on soil surface along the row, at 5 cm distance from the plants. Each plant had one dripper, with a discharge rateof2lh 1, and soil wetness coefficient is 0.5. Drip irrigation pipes were also made of black polyethylene

3 714 L. J. YANG et al. with one micropore every 30 cm (Jiyuan Irrigation Co., China). And in the furrow irrigation method, the pipes with an interior diameter of 4 6 cm were used to supply water. At the beginning of the irrigation, both ends of the ditch were blocked with soil. Initial irrigation began when soil water potential reached, in each irrigation treatment, 50 kpa at a soil depth of 20 cm before the flowering stage, and at 40 cm depth after the flowering stage. It finished when soil water potential reached field capacity at those points. At the flowering stage, tomato plants were irrigated every 7 d, irrigation quota per event was m 3 ha 1 for furrow treatment and m 3 ha 1 for drip and subsurface treatments. After fruit enlarging stage, tomato plants were irrigated every 4 7 d, irrigation quota per event was m 3 ha 1 for furrow method and m 3 ha 1 for drip and subsurface methods. Total irrigation amounts for furrow, drip and subsurface methods were 5 793, and m 3 ha 1, respectively. Forty-day old tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum P. Miller var. LFZ-3) seedlings were transplanted at 30 cm, within the row, and 50 cm, between rows, on April 10 and ended on October 12. In the subsurface irrigation treatment, the seedlings were positioned just above the buried pipes. After transplanting, all seedlings were watered immediately to top soil field capacity. All treatments received each year the applications of N, P, K and organic manure as follows: Organic manure, and N, P and K fertilizers were applied as horse manure, diammonium phosphate and potassium sulfate, respectively. Organic manure (90 t ha 1 ) was applied to the soil surface and later incorporated cm under soil surface by means of manual ploughing five days before transplanting the seedlings. Diammonium phosphate (525 kg ha 1 ) and potassium sulfate (375 kg ha 1 ) were band-applied as basal in the row at a depth of cm while planting. The manure contained 32.4 g kg 1 of organic matter, 5.20 g kg 1 of total N, 3.50 g kg 1 of total P 2 O 5, 2.40 g kg 1 of total K 2 O and mg kg 1 of available P. During the fallow season between the cultivation, the greenhouse was covered with plastic film and kept without irrigation and/or natural precipitation. Soil sampling and analysis Soil samples for soil P analysis were collected from 0 10, 10 20, 20 30, 30 40, 40 50, and cm depths after tomato was harvested. Four soil samples were taken from each treatment in the middle of two plants of the same row, 10 cm apart from the plants and 5 cm apart from drip emitters. Soils were air-dried at room temperature and sieved with a 1-mm mesh sieve for the analysis of soil available P or with a mm mesh sieve for total P and various forms of soil P content analyses. Visible pieces of crop residues and roots were removed. Soil water content was monitored with ceramic tensiometers (Soil Moisture Equipment Co., Santa Barbara, USA) buried in each treatment at 0 10, 10 20, 20 30, and cm depth. After the soil water potential at the different layers was measured the soil water content of a layer was estimated from the corresponding soil-water curve. Total P content of the soil was determined by molybdenum blue colorimetric method after extraction with concentrated H 2 SO 4 -HClO 4 (Murphy and Riley, 1962). Olsen P was extracted with 0.5 mol L 1 NaHCO 3 at ph 8.5 and determined according to Olsen and Sommers (1982). The organic P content was measured by ignition method as described by Egawa and Nonaka (1980). Total N, P and K contents of the organic manure were determined by digesting samples with concentrated H 2 SO 4 and H 2 O 2 and measuring N by distillation method, P by colorimetric method (Murphy and Riley, 1962) and K by flame photometry (Lu, 1999). Data analysis Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed with the SPSS12.0 for Windows (SPSS, Chicago, USA) software package, and mean comparisons were done using the Duncan s multiple range tests at the significant level of P<0.05. RESULTS Effect of irrigation method on tomato yield Compared to furrow irrigation method, drip and subsurface irrigation methods significantly increased tomato yield by 19.7% and 11.7%, respectively (Fig. 2). However, there was no significant difference of tomato yield between drip and subsurface irrigation methods. Effect of irrigation method on profile distribution of soil water An example of soil water content in the profile measured daily during the growth stage of tomato, up to 4 7 d after an irrigation event, is shown in Fig. 3. There were no great differences in their distribution profile

4 IRRIGATION EFFECT ON SOIL P DISTRIBUTION 715 Fig. 2 Tomato yields under three kinds of irrigation methods. Vertical bars represent standard errors of the means. Bars marked by the same letter are not significantly different at P<0.05. patterns between drip and furrow irrigation treatments. Water content tended to decline with time, especially in the upper layers. Furrow irrigation treatment exhibited the lowest value 3 4 d after the irrigation event. Effect of irrigation method on the content and profile distribution of soil P forms Generally speaking, the contents of different P forms plotted versus soil depth followed a decreasing sigmoid curve. Almost no differences were seen between the 0 10 and cm soil layers, while a sharp decline began afterwards. The topsoil (0 10 and cm) had considerably higher total P content than the subsoil layers (20 30, 30 40, and cm) in all the treatments (Fig. 4a), with no significant differences between the 0 10 and cm layers or between the and cm layers. Drip irrigation treatment tended to have the largest values at each depth, especially at the and cm layers. Subsurface irrigation treatment tended to have the smallest values below 30 cm. Furrow irrigation treatment tended to have values similar to subsurface irrigation above 30 cm depth but to drip irrigation treatment below 30 cm. Similar to total P, topsoil layers (0 10 and cm) had higher Olsen P content compared to the subsoil layers (20 30, 30 40, and cm) (Fig. 4b), with no significant difference between the 0 10 and cm layers or between the and cm layers. Furrow irrigation treatment tended to have the largest values in each depth, especially at the 0 10 Fig. 3 Soil water contents in the profile measured daily after an irrigation event during the growth stage of tomato. cm layer. Subsurface irrigation treatment tended to have the smallest. Similar to total and available P, the topsoil (0 10 and cm) layers had significantly higher organic P than the subsoil (20 30, 30 40, and cm) layers in the three irrigation treatments (Fig. 4c). Drip and furrow irrigation treatments had similar values in the upper (0 10 cm) and lower (40 60 cm) layers, and they had a higher organic P content than subsurface irrigation treatment. The topsoil (0 10 and cm) had significantly higher inorganic P than the subsoil (20 30, 30 40, 40

5 716 L. J. YANG et al. Fig. 4 Total (a), Olsen (b), organic (c) and inorganic P (d) contents in soil throughout the depth of 0 60 cm. Error bars represent standard errors of the means. Bars marked by the same letter(s) for a given soil depth are not significantly different at P< and cm) in the three irrigation treatments (Fig. 4d). Drip irrigation treatment tended to have the highest inorganic P content at each depth, especially at the cm layer. Subsurface irrigation treatment tended to be the lowest at most of the depths. DISCUSSION Total, Olsen, organic and inorganic P contents decreased with increased soil depth under the three irrigation treatments. The characteristics of non uniform P distribution in soil might be mainly attributed to the higher organic compounds in the topsoil, as well as to the slow movement of P from shallow to deep soil horizons, since most P-containing fertilizer and organic manure were usually applied to upper soil layers (0 20 cm). Initial P diffusion from the fertilizer seldom exceeds 3 to 5 cm (Hosseinpur and Biabanaki, 2009). Diffusion of fertilizer P reaction products away from the dissolving granules increases with increasing soil water content (Havlin et al., 2005). Furthermore, although a high quantity of P was applied in organic and inorganic forms, P application represents a smaller proportion of total, organic and inorganic P in top soil. No great differences were observed among the different P forms in the top soil (0 20 cm) probably because P-containing fertilizers were mainly applied in the shallow soil layer. Soil moisture content influences the effectiveness and availability of applied P (Campo et al., 1998). At field capacity 50% 80% of the water-soluble P can diffuse from the fertilizer granule within 24 hours. Even at g kg 1 moisture, 20% 50% of the watersoluble P moves out of the granule within that period (Havlin et al., 2005). The similar P contents observed at the depths of and cm were probably due to the movement of P to the deeper soil layers along with the soil water front to some extent at the beginning of higher P application. Behera and Panda (2009) also found, for a wheat crop in a sub-humid sub-tropical region, that the magnitudes of variation of the P content, under different

6 IRRIGATION EFFECT ON SOIL P DISTRIBUTION 717 irrigation schedules, were larger in upper layers than in lower layers. Very little variation in the magnitude of P content of the fertilizer treatments was found in the deeper layers, such as the and cm. This indicated that the P movement was limited mainly to the upper layer (0 45 cm) and very little movement was found beyond 45 cm soil depth. In the present study, a significant reduction was observed for all P forms below 50 cm. This suggested that soil P movements were mainly restricted to the upper 50 cm, even under heavy irrigation. The Olsen P content in the topsoil tended to be greater under furrow irrigation than under drip and subsurface irrigations (Fig. 4b). As observed in Fig. 1, the soil water content under furrow irrigation, especially for the top soil, varied greatly from the first day to the rest after an irrigation event, which coincided with its significantly higher Olsen P content, and furrow method had a lower tomato yield, leading to lower P uptake and higher Olsen P content. On the contrary, subsurface drip irrigation had more constant water content profile, which coincided with its lower available P content after the harvest that could be caused by a higher P uptake by roots or by a higher P immobilization by soil microorganism. And the highest water availability in the top soil under the drip irrigation could be related to a higher transformation of P from the manure and a higher P uptake by roots, which could lead to lower Olsen P in soil. In addition, irrigation method can alter soil properties, thus affecting the transformation and movement of soil nutrients, and then affecting soil Olsen P content. CONCLUSIONS P distribution throughout soil depth was significantly affected by the irrigation methods. The Olsen P content throughout 0 60 cm was greater under furrow irrigation than under drip and subsurface irrigations. At the 0 20 cm layer, the total, organic and inorganic P contents under drip irrigation were greater than those under subsurface and furrow irrigations. Further study needs to be carried out to find out the main factors controlling plant availability and vertical distribution of soil P in vegetable cultivation under different irrigations in plastic film house. REFERENCES Aldrich, R. A. and Bartok, J. W Greenhouse Engineering. Northeast Regional Agricultural Engineering Service, Cooperative Extension, Ithaca, NY. Bacon, P. E. and Davey, B. G Nutrient availability under trickle irrigation: 1. Distribution of water and Bray no.1 phosphate. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 46: Bar-Yosef, B., Sagiv, B. and Markovitz, T Sweet corn response to surface and subsurface trickle phosphorus fertigation. Agron. J. 81: Bar-Yosef, B. and Bar-Tal, A Principles of fertigation. In Cohen, Y. (ed.) Summary of Lecture Notes on Irrigation Science and Greenhouse Control. Bet Dagan, Israel. pp Behera, S. K. and Panda, R. K Effect of fertilization and irrigation schedule on water and fertilizer solute transport for wheat crop in a sub-humid sub-tropical region. Agric. Ecosys. Environ. 130: Campo, J., Jaramillo, V. J. and Maass, J. M Pulses of soil phosphorus availability in a mexican tropical dry forest: effects of seasonality and level of wetting. Oecologia. 115: Cetin, Ö. and Uygan, D The effect of drip line spacing, irrigation regimes and planting geometries of tomato on yield, irrigation water use efficiency and net return. Agr. Water Manage. 95: Egawa, T. and Nonaka, M Studies on soil organic phosphorus. 1. Organic phosphorus content in some Andosols. Bull. Fac. Agric. Meiji Univ. (in Japanese). 52: Fan, Y., Hu, S., Chen, D., Li, Y. and Shen, J The evolution of phosphorus metabolism model in China. J. Cleaner Prod. (in Chinese). 17: Han, J. and Xu, S Water-saving effect of drip irrigation and evaluation of irrigation regimes for tomato production in solar energy greenhouses. J. Southwest Agr. Univ. (in Chinese). 25(1): Harmanto, Salokhe, V. M., Babel, M. S. and Tantau, H. J Water requirement of drip irrigated tomatoes grown in greenhouse in tropical environment. Agr. Water Manage. 71: Havlin, J. L., Tisdale, S. L., Nelson, W. L. and Beaton, J. D Soil Fertility and Fertilizers: An Introduction to Nutrients Management. 7th Edition. Prentice Hall. Hosseinpur, A. R. and Biabanaki, F. S Impact of fertilizer phosphorus application on phosphorus release kinetics in some calcareous soils. Environ. Geol. 56: Liu, J. L., Zhang F. S. and Yang, F. H Fractions of phosphorus in cultivated and vegetable soils in northern China. Plant Nutr. Fert. Sci. (in Chinese). 6: Lu, R. K Analysis Methods of Soil and Agrochemistry (in Chinese). China Agricultural Science and Technology Press, Beijing, China. Mahajan, G. and Singh, K. G Response of Greenhouse tomato to irrigation and fertigation. Agr. Water Manage. 84:

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