Variations in soil moisture, heat and salt under year round mulching of white and black film

Plastic film mulching in agriculture is known as the "white revolution", which has played a decisive role in agriculture in semi-arid areas. With the wide application of black and white films in agro-forestry production, many scholars have focused on the studies of mechanisms and functions of film mulching. It was found that film mulching not only promote crop growth, but also accelerate soil moisture lose. However, previous studies were conducted on white mulch tests under condition of growing crops. In order to clarify the differences between black and white film mulching and the ecological benefits under continuous film mulching, the field experiment of continuous film mulching without crop were conducted in Mizhi, northern Shaanxi, from July 1^st, 2015 to June 30^th, 2017. The experiment included three treatments, white film mulching of ridge (WF), black film of ridge (BF) mulching and no mulching of ridge (CK). In the experiment, the ridge was 50 cm wide, 20 cm high with 20 cm wide furrow. Each treatment was repeated three times and soil moisture, temperature, and electrical conductivity were measured at depths of 5 cm, 15 cm, 30 cm, 50 cm, 75 cm, 100 cm, 125 cm and 150 cm using GS3 instrument. The results indicated that:1) after two consecutive years of film mulching, soil moisture contents under two film mulching treatments and CK were 16.9% in average and 13.6%, and soil water storage capacity were 314.56 mm and 204.44 mm. Soil moisture content under BF was higher at 0-15 cm (P < 0.05) and lower at 15-30 cm (P < 0.05) than that of WF. At 0-150 cm, the total water storage of WF and BF was not significantly different, but significantly different from that of CK (P < 0.05). During the crop growth period, the average soil water storage with film mulching was 60.8 mm higher than that of CK. The daily temperature difference near soil surface under WF was greater than that under BF. At 0-150 cm, there was no significant difference in the average soil temperature between WF and BF in two years, which was 1.3℃ higher than that of CK (P < 0.05). At higher temperatures, WF decreased the freeze-thaw time by 8 days and 24 days compared with BF and CK, respectively, which was more conducive for soil thawing and soil warming in early spring. Annual soil salt content was higher in shallow soil, and was in the order of BF > WF > CK at 0-30 cm soil layer, WF > BF > CK at 30-50 cm soil layer. The results also revealed that soil salt content was low and no difference among treatments below 50 cm depth. No salinization of soil was observed under CK, BF and WF treatments. Overall, WF was more beneficial for improving surface soil temperature than BF, but it was the opposite for soil water moisture. Film mulching may increase soil temperature and prolong crop growth time. The research results could provide a basis for reasonable soil water-heat-salt regulation by film mulching in semi-arid Loess Hilly Region, and also provide a reference for the continuous film mulching technique in orchard and woodland.