Study on Soil Moisture Change under Various Soil Management Measures in Dry Land Maize Field

The experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of various soil management measures on soil moisture change in dry land maize field.Results showed that maize stalk mulch and perforated plastic film mulch can raise soil moisture,increase infiltration depth of rainfall and reduce soil moisture consumption,compared with fragmented maize stalk for field and open-field planting.The effect of the measures in sequence were maize stalk mulch,perforated plastic film mulch, fragmented maize stalk for field and open-field planting.Influenced by difference of soil moisture at first and less of rainfall,effect of different soil management measures on soil moisture was not significant in the early of growth period of maize.However,different measures had significant effect on storing and preserving water after plenty of rainfall in August.Soil water storage from 0 to 120 cm depth of maize stalk mulch was 248.2 mm,which was 23.1 mm higher than that of open-field planting in September.Infiltration depth of rainfall of maize stalk mulch was 120 cm,which was 25 cm higher than that of open-field planting.