Agricultural Water Management 230 (2020) 105956

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Agricultural Water Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat

Simulating the effects of conventional versus conservation tillage on soil T

water, nitrogen dynamics, and yield of winter wheat with RZWQM2
Jinli Dinga,c,1, Wei Hub,1, Jicheng Wuc,d,*, Yonghui Yangc,d, Hao Fenge,*
a
Zhengzhou Normal University, Zhengzhou, Henan 450044, China
b
Key Laboratory of Mollisols Agroecology, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin 150081, China
c
Institute of Plant Nutrition and Resource & Environmental Science, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou, Henan 450002, China
d
Yuanyang Experimental Station of Crop Water Use, Ministry of Agriculture, Yuanyang, Henan 453514, China
e
State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The movement and distribution of the soil water and nitrogen are significantly influenced by tillage manage-
Soil water and nitrogen balance ment. However, the dynamics of soil water and nitrogen due to changes in tillage and surface residue cover can
Tillage intensity be difficult to characterize due to limitations in field experimentation. The objective of this study was to quantify
RZWQM2 the differences in the soil water and nitrogen balance in the 0–100 cm soil profile, winter wheat (Triticum aes-
Water productivity and nitrogen use efficiency
tivum L.) yield, water productivity (WP) and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) that occur when conventional tillage
(WP and NUE)
(CT) was changed to four types of conservation tillage treatments (no-tillage [NT], subsoiling tillage [ST], no-
tillage with straw [NS] and subsoiling tillage with straw [SS]). Experimental data from 2011 to 2016 collected in
Henan province, China on a sandy loam soil was used to calibrate and validate the Root Zone Water Quality
Model (RZWQM2). Then the model was used to simulate four tillage systems (NT, NS, ST, SS) that were then
compared with CT. The agreement index (d) between simulated and measured soil water content, soil nitrate
concentration, and grain yield ranged between 0.71 and 0.93. The root means square error (RMSE) of the soil
water content and nitrate concentration was in the range 0.02–0.03 cm cm−1and 5.5–10.3 mg kg−1, respec-
tively. When CT was converted to NT from 2011 to 2016, the model simulated a 9.1 % reduction in annual water
loss and a 55.6 % decrease in nitrogen leaching loss and simulated significant increase in average grain yield, WP
and NUE. Replacing CT with NT appears to be the best of the four alternative conservation tillage conversion
strategies in Henan Province of China.

1. Introduction thus resulting in increased winter wheat yield (Franzluebbers, 2002),

Henan Province, located in east-central China, is one of the most
important grain production regions in China. The arid areas of culti-
vated land cover over 4.4 million ha in Henan Province, accounting for
64 % of the entire cultivated land in China (Wu et al., 2003). Water
shortage is the primary factor limiting sustainable agricultural devel-
opment (Zhang et al., 2017). In addition, over-fertilization results in
low nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) for grain yield production (Wang
et al., 2013), and can cause groundwater quality problems (Wang et al.,
2006; Vitousek et al., 2009; Wang et al., 2015a,b; Mansour et al.,
2019a,b). Conservation tillage can increase soil water content (Singh
et al., 1998) and decrease nitrate nitrogen leaching (Liang et al., 2016),
NUE, and water productivity (Shao et al., 2016). Conventional tillage is
still used by some small landholders in Henan Province using tradi-
tional farming experiences, although conservation tillage practices have
been extensively used in general in China (Liu et al., 2017). Con-
servation tillage includes many tillage treatments such as minimum
tillage, no tillage (NT), and subsoiling tillage (ST). Adequately quanti-
fying the dynamics of the soil water and nitrogen under different tillage
treatments and choosing the optimal tillage treatment in Henan Pro-
vince will be important for improving water productivity (WP), NUE,
and crop yield.
A large number of studies have been conducted on the effect of the
conservation tillage on soil water, nutrient content, and crop yield

Abbreviations: CT, conventional tillage; CS, conventional tillage with straw; NT, no–tillage; NS, no-tillage with straw; ST, subsoiling tillage; SS, subsoiling tillage
with straw
⁎
Corresponding authors at: No. 116, Hua Yuan Road, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou, Henan 450002, China.
E-mail addresses: wujc2065@126.com (J. Wu), nercwsi@vip.sina.com (H. Feng).
1
These authors contributed equally to this study

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2019.105956
Received 30 August 2019; Received in revised form 1 December 2019; Accepted 2 December 2019
0378-3774/ © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/).
J. Ding, et al.
(Dalal, 1992; Zibilske et al., 2002; De Vita et al., 2007; Wang et al.,
2015a,b; Zhou et al., 2018). Zhang et al. (2011) found that ST with
surface residue cover was superior in increasing water productivity and
grain yield of rice compared with CT. However, previous studies of
these tillage system effects neglected the differences in soil water and
nutrient dynamics that occur after tillage intensity and surface residue
cover were changed. Due to limitations in conducting detailed field
experiments to observe these dynamics, determining which conserva-
tion tillage treatment is best when changing from CT is an urgent
problem in Henan Province.
The RZWQM2 cropping systems model can simulate water and ni-
trogen processes in agricultural systems. Kumar et al. (1999) first
evaluated the tillage effects on the movement of water and nitrate–ni-
trogen using the RZWQM model. Hu et al. (2006) calibrated and tested
RZWQM2 to assess N management in a double-cropping system com-
prised of winter wheat and corn at Luancheng, in the North China Plain.
Their results showed that RZWQM2 has potential for assessing N and
water management practices and crop rotation in other regions and
climates of the world. RZWQM2 was also used by Ma et al. (2007a) to
evaluate year to year corn and soybean yield, water, and N balance in a
tile-drained field under different cultivation management using 26
years of data from Nashua, Iowa, USA. Their results indicated that
RZWQM2 correctly simulated year to year variations in tile flow and N
loading in tile flow, but the crop yield simulation needed improvement.
Improvements have now been made to the crop models available in
RZWQM2. The current version of the RZWQM2 is a promising tool for
studying effects on water and nitrogen management under different
tillage treatments. However, using RZWQM2 to simulate the impacts of
tillage system changes in water and nitrogen dynamics and finding the
optimal tillage system for local farmers (in term of improvements in soil
water content, crop yield, WP, and NUE) needs further work.
The objectives of this study were (1) to quantify the differences in
the soil water, nitrogen balance in the 0–100 cm soil profile, and winter
wheat yield, WP and NUE that occur when CT was changed to four
types of conservation tillage treatments (NT, NS, ST, SS) on a sandy
loam soil in Henan Province, China; and (2) to recommend the optimal
tillage system for this region in terms of improved WP, NUE, winter
wheat yield, and reduced deep water percolation and N leaching when
CT is changed to conservation tillage treatments.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Site description
The experiment was conducted in 2011–2016 at the Yuzhou Long-
term Experimental Station (34.16 °N, 113.15 °E, elevation 106 m),
Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences in China. This region has flat
terrain topography and a temperate continental monsoon climate. The
slop gradient of the experiment plots is zero (Yang et al., 2018). The
annual mean temperature is 16.5 °C. The mean annual precipitation is
about 675 mm, 60 % of which is received from July to September. The
soil was cinnamon sandy loam, which is classified as a Eutric Cambisol
(ISSS Taxonomy) with 59.1 % sand (2–0.02 mm), 22.5 % silt
(0.02–0.002 mm), and 18.4 % clay content (< 0.002 mm) (Yang et al.,
2010). In 2006, soil fertility properties of the surface soil layer were:
soil organic matter 12.3 g kg−1, total nitrogen 0.8 g kg−1, hydrolyzed
nitrogen 47.82 mg kg−1, available phosphorous 6.66 mg kg−1 and
available potassium 114.8 mg kg−1.
2.2. Field experiment
To better calibrate and validate the root zone water quality model
(RZWQM), four typical tillage treatments in Henan Province (Yang ea
al., 2018), including conventional tillage (CT), conventional tillage
with straw (CS), no-tillage (NT) and subsoiling tillage (ST) were set.
Tillage treatments were fully randomly distributed on plots with
2
Agricultural Water Management 230 (2020) 105956
treatments replicated three times. Individual plot size was 36 m2
(6 m × 6 m). For the CT treatment, moldboard plowing combined with
rotary cultivator and disc harrowing was applied before planting. The
tillage depth was 15 cm, and wheat residues were removed after har-
vesting. The CS treatment had the same tillage method of CT, but wheat
stubbles (5 cm) were retained on the soil surface along with corn (Zea
mays, L.) residues (4500 kg ha−1) obtained from the previous autumn.
Wheat stubbles (5 cm) were also retained in the NT treatment, but there
was no other tillage measures in addition to using pesticide after re-
turning green stage of winter wheat. ST treatment involved chisel
plowing with a shovel and the tillage depth was 25 cm. The winter
wheat cultivar was “Aikang 58″. Before winter wheat sowing, fertilizers
of urea, potassium sulfate and diammonium hydrogen phosphate were
applied at the rate of 225 kg N ha−1, 75 kg K ha−1 and 105 kg P ha−1.
Wheat was sown at the rate of 150 kg ha−1 with row spacing of 23 cm.
In order to ensure good germination and adequate plant stands, 60 mm
irrigation water was applied each year before sowing. During the
2011–2014 growing seasons, another 60 mm irrigation water was ap-
plied each year at jointing (Feekes stages 6). No irrigation water was
applied during the 2015 and 2016 growing seasons.
Experimental data, including soil water content, winter wheat bio-
mass and grain yield, were collected from 2011 to 2016. Soil volumetric
water contents at the depths of 0–20, 20–40, 40–60, and 60–100 cm
were measured every 10 d with FDR meter (Frequency Domain
Reflectomety ET-100, Beijing Dongfang Runze ecological technology
company LTD) in 2011–2016. Soil gravimetric water content was
measured at seedling, jointing, flowering and harvest stages by manu-
ally taking soil cores at the depths of 0–20, 20–40, 40–60, and
60–100 cm and drying them at 105 °C for 12 h (Lu, 2000) in each year.
The winter wheat biomass was measured at seedling, jointing and
harvest stage. In each plot, additional soil samples were collected at five
20 cm intervals down the soil profiles to a depth of 100 cm. Con-
centrations of NH4+–N and NO3––N were determined by extracting soil
samples with 1 mol L−1 KCl and then analyzing the extracts with a
continuous flow analyzer (TRAACS 2000, Bran and Luebbe). Wheat
plants from a 1 m2 area were sampled and dried at 75 °C to measure the
above-ground biomass. Winter wheat grain yield was determined at
maturity by harvesting a randomly selected 4 m2 area in each plot.
2.3. RZWQM2 description
The latest version of RZWQM2 has evolved steadily since its debut
in 1992 (Ahuja et al., 2000). The model integrates such processes as soil
water movement, nitrogen and carbon cycles, pesticide movement, soil
chemical processes, plant growth, and management practices (Jaynes
and Miller, 1999). Tillage is one of the most important management
practices that is simulated. In RZWQM2, tillage is assumed to destroy
all the macropores in the tillage zone. Both primary tillage with a
moldboard plow, and secondary tillage using cultivators, planters, and
other implements are provided (Ahuja et al., 2000). RZWQM2 can si-
mulate soil porosity, saturated soil water content, soil water content-
suction relationships, and hydraulic conductivity through tillage-in-
duced bulk density changes (Ahuja et al., 2000). The presence of a
surface residue layer the simulated potential soil evaporation process
which is modeled with the extended Shuttleworth-Wallace ET model
(Ahuja et al., 2000).
2.4. Model calibration and validation
Inputs used by RZWQM2 include meteorological data, soil hydraulic
properties, initial volumetric soil water contents, temperature, nitrate
and ammonium concentrations, and crop data. Field management ac-
tivities, including fertilization, irrigation, and tillage, can be specified
by the user.
Weather data including solar radiation and daily rainfall were col-
lected from an on-site weather station. The initial soil hydraulic
J. Ding, et al. Agricultural Water Management 230 (2020) 105956

Table 1
Selected measured soil parameters initially used in the RZWQM2 simulations. Data including bulk density, saturated water content, permanent wilting point and
saturated hydraulic conductivity were collected on October 2014 from a field near the experimental field. Soil water content and NO3-N content were collected before
planting in the experimental field in 2014.
Soil depth Bulk density Saturated Permanent Saturated hydraulic conductivity Soil water content NO3-N
(cm) (g cm−3) water content wilting point (cm h−1) (cm3 cm−3) (mg kg−1)
(%) (%)
CT CS NT ST CT CS NT ST

0-20 1.10 51.6 11.2 0.25 19.8 20.4 20.7 18.7 2.44 2.71 1.30 1.08
20-40 1.39 45.2 9.8 0.07 19.4 19.4 20.2 18.9 1.04 1.30 1.95 0.80
40-60 1.47 48.2 10.4 0.10 19.8 20.4 20.1 18.6 0.44 0.64 0.73 0.49
60-80 1.52 49.3 9.2 0.10 20.2 21.5 20.4 19.8 0.28 0.27 0.28 0.28
80-100 1.52 47.4 10.3 0.14 20.0 21.8 20.5 19.7 0.23 0.24 0.23 0.25

Note: CT, conventional tillage; CS, conventional tillage with straw; NT, no-tillage; ST, subsoiling tillage.

properties data used in the RZWQM2 simulations, including bulk den- yield when conventional tillage is replaced with the four conservation
sity, saturated water content, permanent wilting point and saturated tillage treatments every year from 2011 to 2016.
hydraulic conductivity, were collected from a field near the experi-
mental field with conventional tillage on October 2014, and measured
2.6. Model performance criteria and calculations of WP and NUE
using the methodology of Jury and Horton (2004). Besides, the initial
soil water content and NO3––N content were measured before planting
Three statistical indices, namely root mean square error (RMSE),
in the experimental field in 2014 (Table 1). The initial soil organic and
mean relative error (MRE) and agreement index (d), were used to assess
soil microbial pools in the simulation were set according to the default
the agreement between the simulated and observed data:
values provided with RZWQM2.
RZWQM2 was calibrated using the data under all field experiment N
(Pi − Oi )2
treatments (CT, CS, NT and ST) from October 2014 to June 2015 be- RMSE = ∑ N
cause of the available measured data that included soil water and i=1 (1)
NO3−–N in the 0–100 cm soil depth, and winter wheat biomass and N
yield. We adjusted the model parameters such as the soil hydraulic 1 Pi − Oi
MRE =
N
∑ Oi
× 100%
parameters, soil organic and soil microbial pools, and winter wheat i=1 (2)
cultivar parameters using the automatic parameter optimization pro-
n
gram PEST (model independent parameter estimation) linked with ∑i = 1 (Oi − Pi )2
RZWQM2. Final adjustment of the parameters was conducted by trial d=1− n
∑i = 1 (|Pi − O| + |Oi − O|)2 (3)
and error (Ma et al., 2007a). The calibrated plant cultivar parameter
values are shown in Table 2. The calibrated parameters resulting from Where Pi are the simulated values of soil water content, nitrate-N
simulation with 2014–2015 growing season data were subsequently content, biomass or grain yield, Oi are the observed values, N is the
used for the model validation simulations for CT, CS, NT and ST in other number of data points, and O is the average of the observed data
years (2011–2014 and 2015–2016). These validation simulations with (cm3 cm−3 or kg ha−1).
different tillage treatments used the same plant cultivar parameters and The closer the value of the RMSE and MRE are to 0, the more ac-
soil hydraulic property parameters as used for model calibration. curate is the model. A value of the agreement index (d) of 1 corresponds
to a perfect match between the simulated and observed data (Willmott,
2.5. Tillage simulation scenarios 1981).
The WP and NUE were calculated as follows:
RZWQM was used to set up scenarios due to the limited tillage Y
treatments of field experiments (CT, CS, NT and ST). According to our WP =
ET (4)
study objective, tillage simulation scenarios were designed, namely, CT
was changed to NT, NS (NT with 6000 kg ha−1 of straw), ST, and SS (ST Yg
with 6000 kg ha−1 of straw), respectively. Using daily meteorological NUE =
(Nvol + Nden + Nlea + Nup ) (5)
data from five years (2011–2016), components of the soil water balance
−1 −1
and nitrogen balance, above ground biomass, and grain yield under CT Where WP is water productivity (kg ha mm ); Y is the winter wheat
were simulated by the validated RZWQM2. The simulated CT results yield (kg ha−1); ET is the evapotranspiration during winter wheat
were used as control values to compare with simulation results from the growing season (mm); NUE is nitrogen use efficiency; Nvol is nitrogen
four conservation tillage systems. Finally, we simulated the changes volatilization (kg ha−1); Nden is nitrogen denitrification (kg ha−1); Nlea,
that occur in the water balance, nitrogen balance, biomass, and grain nitrogen leaching (kg ha−1) and Nup, nitrogen uptake (kg ha−1).

Table 2
Calibrated plant cultivar parameters for winter wheat simulation by RZWQM2.
Parameter name means wheat

P1V Days at optimum vernalizing temperature required to complete vernalization (d) 48.73
P1D Percentage reduction in development when photoperiod is 10 hours less than the threshold relative to that at threshold (%/h) 23
P5 Grain filling (excluding lag) phase duration (°C d) 491.3
G1 Kernel number per unit canopy weight at anthesis (#/g) 22.2
G2 Standard kernel size under optimum conditions (mg) 52.81
G3 Standard non-stressed dry weight of a single tiller at maturity (g) 1.924
PHINT Interval between successive leaf tip appearance (°C d) 89.58

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J. Ding, et al. Agricultural Water Management 230 (2020) 105956

Table 3 values were acceptable. Simulated biomass under CT, CS, NT, and ST
Statistics for comparing RZWQM2-simulated values to measured values for treatments was similar to measured values for the validation data set,
winter wheat data sets used for calibration and validation. with RMSE of 432–911 kg ha−1, MRE of 9 %–14 %, and d of 0.87–0.93
Items Tillage Calibration Validation (Table 3). The RMSE, MRE and d values for winter wheat grain yield
ranged from 427 to 809 kg ha−1, 5%–10%, and 0.84 to 0.90, respec-
RMSE MRE d RMSE MRE d tively (Table 3). Fig. 3 showed that the correlation coefficient for grain
yield was 0.84 with r2 of 0.64 and p < 0.05, indicating that RZWQM2
Water content CT 0.02 0.15 0.92 0.03 0.16 0.91
(cm3 cm−3) CS 0.03 0.14 0.92 0.02 0.10 0.87 can reasonably predict winter wheat grain yield. Several under-pre-
NT 0.03 0.13 0.93 0.03 0.18 0.90 dicted values were shown in Fig. 3 due to dry weather, consistent with
ST 0.03 0.19 0.91 0.03 0.19 0.90 results from Timsina et al. (2008) who demonstrated how RZWQM
model failed to simulate the practical drought resistance of winter
Nitrate concentration CT 5.50 0.44 0.84 9.10 0.51 0.73
(mg kg−1) CS 5.81 0.34 0.82 10.30 0.55 0.70
wheat in a dry year.
NT 6.41 0.47 0.79 6.60 0.47 0.77
ST 6.30 0.47 0.80 10.20 0.55 0.71 3.2. Analyses of model simulation results

Biomass CT 847 0.26 0.88 431.80 0.09 0.93

3.2.1. Water balance in soil profile
(kg ha−1) CS 608 0.27 0.90 567.60 0.11 0.91
NT 1066 0.19 0.84 475.90 0.09 0.92 After calibration and validation of RZWQM2, evapotranspiration
ST 785 0.13 0.89 910.80 0.14 0.87 (ET), water drainage, and runoff were simulated in the 100 cm soil
profile from 2011 to 2016 (Table 4). The main water inputs were from
Yield CT 365 0.04 0.92 578.60 0.07 0.89
precipitation, which averaged 224 mm during the winter wheat
(kg ha−1) CS 144 0.03 0.94 427.30 0.05 0.90
NT 360 0.04 0.92 752.10 0.08 0.85
growing season from 2011 to 2016 (Table 4). The main water con-
ST 1577 0.17 0.78 808.80 0.10 0.84 sumption was through soil evaporation and plant transpiration (ET).
Compared with CT, the simulated average ET under NT and NS slightly
Note: CT, conventional tillage; CS, conventional tillage with straw; NT, no-til- increased while average ET under ST and SS decreased by 9.8 % and
lage; ST, subsoiling tillage. 10.1 %, respectively. Compared with CT, more water runoff was si-
mulated under ST and SS because no surface roughness/detention sto-
3. Results and discussion rage was considered in RZWQM2, and all rainfall exceeding saturated
hydraulic conductivity and macropore flow was considered runoff. Al-
3.1. Model calibration and validation though runoff was likely over–simulated in RZWQM2 for ST and SS, the
simulated result was acceptable because runoff only accounted for
Table 3 shows the comparison statistics between measured and si- small percentage of the overall soil water budget (Ma et al., 2007a). In
mulated values of soil water contents, nitrate concentrations, above- the present study, average water runoff under ST and SS only account
ground biomass and grain yield under different tillage treatments for for 3.9 % of water consumption. The results also indicated that there
the calibration and validation data sets. The RMSE values of soil water was no difference between ST and SS in simulated runoff amount.
content and nitrate concentration under different treatments in the However, further improvements to RZWQM2 may be needed for better
100 cm soil profile ranged from 0.02 to 0.03 and from 5.50 to 6.41, simulation of water runoff. When CT was changed to NT and NS, an 8.4
respectively, for the calibration data set. The comparison results of si- % and 3.9 % reduction in average water drainage was simulated, re-
mulated and measured values for soil water are presented only for CT spectively. Also, the simulated water loss (the sum of water drainage
and NT (Fig. 1). The simulated soil water contents in the five 20-cm soil and runoff) decreased by 9.1 % and 4.7 %, respectively.
layers for CT and NT were close to the measured values under both CT
and NT tillage treatments (Fig. 1). The two other treatments (CS and 3.2.2. Nitrogen balance
ST) had similar trends. The RMSE for soil water content for the CT, CS, The validated model was used to simulate the nitrogen balance from
NT, and ST treatments ranged from 0.021–0.033, 0.026–0.037, 2011 to 2016 when CT was changed to NT, NS, ST and SS (Table 4). On
0.024–0.036, and 0.022–0.036 cm3 cm−3, respectively. Simulated ni- average, the simulated soil N mineralization under NT and NS increased
trate concentrations over time generally followed the measured values by 15.2 % and 4.3 %, respectively, compared with CT. However, the
at different soil depths for the calibration data set (Fig. 2). RMSE of CT, simulated soil N mineralization amounts under ST and SS were lower
CS, NT and ST treatments varied from 1.55 mg kg−1 to 6.41 mg kg−1 than observed with CT. The reasons for these differences may be par-
with d > 0.7. The accuracy of the nitrate concentration simulations was tially attributed to the differences in soil water and temperature when
lower than that of the soil water simulations due to the complexity of CT was changed to conservation tillage treatments (Zaman and Chang,
nitrogen cycle (Nangia et al., 2008). 2004).
The simulated above-ground biomass at harvest was close to ob- The main N outputs were plant uptake, gaseous N emission and N
served values for CT, CS NT and ST, as shown in Table 3, with RMSE leaching. In this study, crop N uptake was in the range of 160–201 kg
values ranging from 608 to 1066 kg ha−1 for the calibration data set. ha−1 for all treatments before and after tillage change. N denitrification
Furthermore, the simulated winter wheat grain yields under different was very small (0.8–7.5 kg ha−1) before and after the tillage system
tillage treatments were in good agreement with measured values for CT, change while the NH3 volatilization loss was in the range 12.1–28.6 kg
CS, and NT treatments, with RMSE ranging from 144 to 365 kg ha−1. ha−1 (Table 4). Ammonia volatilization, one pathway of N loss, was
However, the ST treatment had an RMSE of 1577 kg ha−1 and d of 0.78 influenced by tillage practices and by the crop residues (Alkanani and
(Table 3). Mackenzie, 1992) due to different soil temperature and soil water
The statistical indices comparing simulated to measured values for content (Mcgarry et al., 1987). Tillage affects soil bulk density and
soil water contents and nitrate concentrations in the 100 cm soil profile, porosity (Hamza and Anderson, 2005), soil hydraulic conductivities
above-ground biomass, and grain yield under different tillage treat- (Chang and Lindwall, 1992), and soil water content and temperature. In
ments for the validation data set are shown in Table 3. The RMSE values our study, the simulated NH3 volatilization was approximately doubled
of soil water ranged from 0.02 to 0.03 cm3 cm−3. The MRE values of when CT was changed to NT and NS. This may be due to higher urease
soil water contents were in the range of 16 %–19 %. Although simu- activity under NT, and that surface crop residues under a NT tillage
lated nitrogen concentrations under different tillage treatments were system likely resulted in decreased contact of urea granules with the
less satisfactory (with RMSE ranging from 6.6 to 10.3 mg kg−1), the soil (Rochette et al., 2009). Alkanani and Mackenzie (1992) observed

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J. Ding, et al. Agricultural Water Management 230 (2020) 105956

Fig. 1. Simulated and observed volumetric soil water content in five soil layer for winter wheat grown under conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT) for the
RZWQM2 calibration data set.

that reduced NH3 loss with CT was attributed in part to reduce crop
residues compared with NT. Rochette et al. (2009) reported that mean
cumulative NH3 losses were greater in NT than in other treatments due
to greater soil surface urease activity and reduced adsorption of NH4+
on soil particulars under NT. Dong et al. (2013) also found that NT was
able to accelerate the urea hydrolysis reaction and increase NH3 vola-
tilization.
Another pathways of N loss in Henan Province are nitrate leaching
(Cai et al., 2002). In this study, simulated N leaching decreased by 55.6
%, 44.6 %, 28.8 %, and 13.0 % when CT was changed to NT, NS, ST and

Fig. 2. Simulated and observed volumetric soil NO3-N in five soil layer for winter wheat grown under conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT) for the RZWQM2
calibration data set.

5
J. Ding, et al. Agricultural Water Management 230 (2020) 105956

Fig. 4. Average soil water storage in the 0−100 cm soil profile under different
tillage treatments at different winter wheat growth stages. See text for tillage
treatment abbreviations.

Fig. 3. Comparisons of simulated and observed winter wheat grain yield under
CT, CS, NT, and ST treatments (see text for abbreviation definitions). These
values were use for validating the Root Zone Water Quality Model.
SS, respectively. Ma et al. (2007b) reported that N leaching increased
with the increasing tillage intensity. Furthermore, N leaching was
greater when CT was changed to NS and SS treatments than when CT
was changed to NT and ST treatments. Greater N leaching in treatments
with residue cover was resulted from the increasing of NO3−–N con-
centration in the drainage water (Zhang et al., 2014), and also greater
water drainage in these systems (Table 4). N leaching was the lowest
under NT in our simulations, which was similar to results presented by
Ma et al. (2007b) who reported increased flow-weighted N concentra-
tion (the nitrate-N concentration in drain flow) with increasing tillage
intensity. Randall and Iragavarapu (1995) used data from an 11-year
corn experiment to assess nitrate nitrogen losses under CT and NT
treatment, and found that NO3−–N losses were 5 % greater with CT
compared with NT.
3.2.3. Crop yield, WP and NUE
When CT was changed to NT and NS, the simulated above-ground
biomass increased while it decreased when CT was changed to ST and
SS (Table 4). Average aboveground biomass under NT increased by 7.2
% compared with CT. The model simulated a 4.6 % and 3.4 % increase
in grain yields under NT and NS, respectively, compared with CT. For
both above-ground biomass and grain yield, tillage treatments followed
the order of NT > NS > CT > ST > SS. In general, winter wheat
yield increased when CT was changed to NT and NS, while yield de-
creased when CT was changed to ST and SS. The reason for lower yield
under ST and SS may be due to the simulated greater water loss re-
sulting in lower ET and to greater N leaching (Table 4). Subsoiling
tillage can reduce soil bulk density below the plow layer and increase
infiltration (Sang et al., 2016), resulting in increased water loss and N
leaching below the active root zone. Although crop residues on the soil
surface can reduce evaporation (Fan et al., 2013; Zhou et al., 2018),
long-term effects of surface crop residues can include increased earth-
worm populations resulting in increased soil macro porosity and de-
creased soil bulk density, causing greater water loss below the active
root zone. The result is lower simulated grain yield under SS compared
with CT. When CT was changed to NT, grain yield increased 4.5 % due
to the greater soil water content in the 0–100 cm soil profile (Fig. 4) and
lower drainage under NT (Table 4). Similar results were reported by
Noellemeyer et al. (2013) in Argentina. In Colorado, USA, Nielsen et al.
(2002) reported a nine-years average dryland wheat grain yield that
was 37 % greater when grown under NT than when grown under CT
due to increased soil water at planting with NT which was a result of 15
% greater precipitation storage efficiency for NT than for CT during the
non-crop period prior to planting wheat (Nielsen and Vigil, 2010). De
Vita et al. (2007) also reported that NT performed better than CT under

Table 4
Simulated water components, nitrogen balance components, grain yield, water productivity (WP), and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) for winter wheat averaged over
5 years for conventional tillage changing to four different conservation tillage.
Items Before changing After changing

CT NT NS ST SS

Rainfall (mm) 224 224 224 224 224

ET (mm) 304 304 306 274 273
Drainage (mm) 53 49 51 59 62
Runoff (mm) 2 1 1 13 13
Nfer (kg ha−1) 225 225 225 225 225
Nmin (kg ha−1) 90.5 104.3 94.4 40.5 52.9
Nvol (kg ha−1) 14.2 28.6 28.2 12.4 12.1
Nden (kg ha−1) 1.9 3.9 7.5 0.8 2.2
Nlea (kg ha−1) 43.0 19.1 23.8 30.6 37.4
Nup (kg ha−1) 200.8 198.4 192.9 170.2 174.8
Average aboveground biomass (kg ha−1) 10496 ± 658 11387 ± 208 11128 ± 664 10301 10117
Average yield (kg ha−1) 6985 ± 815 7304 ± 859 7224 ± 665 6438 6323
WP (kg ha−1 mm−1) 23.0 24.1 23.6 23.5 23.2
NUE (kg kg−1) 26.8 29.2 28.6 30.1 27.9

Note: CT, conventional tillage; NT, no-tillage; NS, no-tillage with straw returning; ST, subsoiling tillage; SS, subsoiling tillage with straw on soil surface;
Nfer, nitrogen fertilizer; Nmin, nitrogen mineralization; Nvol, nitrogen volatilization; Nden, nitrogen denitrification; Nlea, nitrogen leaching; Nup, nitrogen uptake.

6
J. Ding, et al.
limited rainfall during the durum wheat growing season in Italy be-
cause of lower water evaporation combined with enhanced soil water
availability.
The WP decreased in the order of NT, NS, CT, ST and SS (Table 4).
Even though grain yields with ST and SS were less than with CT, WP
was greater for ST and SS than for CT because the reduction in ET with
ST and SS compared with CT were relatively greater than the reduction
in yield. The highest WP was obtained with NT. This result agrees with
Mao et al. (2010) who reported that the average wheat grain yield in
two years under NT and ST was increased by 7.1 % and 4.3 %, and WP
was increased by 11.8 % and 4.9 % compared with CT, respectively.
However, Zhang et al. (2011) reported that rice grain yield, net earn-
ings, and WP with ST were all greater than observed with CT and NT.
The reason may be related to different soil type, climate, and tillage
time.
The NUE values ranged from 26.8 to 30.1 kg N kg−1. When CT was
changed to NT, NS, ST and SS, the NUEs increased 8.7 %, 6.5 %, 12.1 %
and 3.9 %, respectively (Table 4). Although the simulated yields under
ST and SS were lower than with CT, their NUEs were higher than seen
with the CT treatment due to lower total N loss compared with CT. NUE
changes due to tillage changes are a result of changes to both crop yield
and total nitrogen consumption. NT and NS significantly increased NH3
volatilization compared with CT. Simulated N loss (the sum of NH3
volatilization, N denitrification, and N leaching) was greatest when CT
was changed to NS. Compared with CT, all four conservation tillage
treatments improved NUE possibly due to the crop residue on the soil
surface (Huo et al., 2005; Mansour et al., 2019a, b, Kong et al., 2017).
Although the highest yields in this study were obtained under NT, NUE
under NT was lower than under ST because of the greater simulated
nitrogen consumption under NT. In general, when CT was changed to
NT, above-ground biomass, grain yields, WP, and NUE all increased
while the N leaching loss decreased.
4. Conclusions
RZWQM2 can be used to simulate water and N balance as well as
winter wheat growth and grain yield when CT was changed to con-
servation tillage methods in Henan Province. When CT was changed to
NT, water loss and N leaching decreased while the above-ground bio-
mass, grain yield, WP, and NUE all increased. Therefore, we re-
commend no-tillage as the optimal tillage system to use if the tradi-
tional CT system currently used by small landholders in Henan Province
is changed to a conservation tillage system.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declared that they have no conflicts of interest to this
work. We declare that we do not have any commercial or associative
interest that represents a conflict of interest in connection with the
work submitted.
Acknowledgments
This study was funded by the National 863 Research Program
(2013AA102904), the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(41701313) and China Key Research and Development Plan
(2017YFD0301102).
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