Abstract
Drought and soil salinization are threatening maize production in Northwest China, and climate change is exacerbating water shortages. The objective of this study is to explore the mechanisms underlying spring maize yield and water use efficiency under water deficit and salt stress, to coordinate water conservation and maize production. A three-year field trial was conducted with two water levels (full irrigation and deficit irrigation) and two salt levels (0.65‰ and 2‰) using two maize genotypes (ZD958 and XY335). Leaf area, leaf photosynthesis, dry matter accumulation, floret number, grain abortion, ear characteristics and water use efficiency were evaluated. Water, salt and their combined stress significantly decreased the grain yield by 7.3%, 20.5%, and 38.7%, respectively, 93.6% of which was explained by grain number depending on spikelet differentiation. Grain abortion was identified as the primary reason for maize yield reduction under water and salt stress. The reduction in total biomass, rather than biomass allocation suppressed spikelet differentiation under water and salt stress. Water or salt single stress improved water use efficiency (3.7%–17.5%) by reducing evaporation compared with no stress. Furthermore, water and salt combined stress significantly decreased maize productivity leading to reduction in water use efficiency. Taken together, reducing grain abortion to maintain grain number is the key to alleviate maize yield loss and improve water use efficiency under water and salt stress.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by-nc. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 10
Claim · model-written summary
Water stress (deficit irrigation) significantly decreased maize grain yield by 7.3% relative to full irrigation.
- Treatment
- deficit irrigatione3
- Outcome
- grain yielde1
- Direction
- decreasede1
- Value
- 7.3%e1
- Comparator
- full irrigatione3
- Setting
- Northwest Chinae0
Zea maysOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Drought and soil salinization are threatening maize production in Northwest China”
e1“Water, salt and their combined stress significantly decreased the grain yield by 7.3%, 20.5%, and 38.7%, respectively, 93.6% of which was explained by grain number depending on spikelet differentiation”
e3“two water levels (full irrigation and deficit irrigation)”
Claim · model-written summary
Salt stress significantly decreased maize grain yield by 20.5% relative to no stress.
- Treatment
- salt stresst0
- Outcome
- grain yielde1
- Direction
- decreasede1
- Value
- 20.5%e1
- Comparator
- no stresse4
- Setting
- Northwest Chinae0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Drought and soil salinization are threatening maize production in Northwest China”
e1“Water, salt and their combined stress significantly decreased the grain yield by 7.3%, 20.5%, and 38.7%, respectively, 93.6% of which was explained by grain number depending on spikelet differentiation”
e4“Water or salt single stress improved water use efficiency (3.7%–17.5%) by reducing evaporation compared with no stress”
t0“deficit irrigation and salt stress”
Claim · model-written summary
Combined water and salt stress significantly decreased maize grain yield by 38.7% relative to no stress.
- Treatment
- combined stresse1
- Outcome
- grain yielde1
- Direction
- decreasede1
- Value
- 38.7%e1
- Comparator
- no stresse4
- Setting
- Northwest Chinae0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Drought and soil salinization are threatening maize production in Northwest China”
e1“Water, salt and their combined stress significantly decreased the grain yield by 7.3%, 20.5%, and 38.7%, respectively, 93.6% of which was explained by grain number depending on spikelet differentiation”
e4“Water or salt single stress improved water use efficiency (3.7%–17.5%) by reducing evaporation compared with no stress”
Claim · model-written summary
Grain number explained 93.6% of the grain yield reduction under water, salt and combined stress.
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Drought and soil salinization are threatening maize production in Northwest China”
e1“Water, salt and their combined stress significantly decreased the grain yield by 7.3%, 20.5%, and 38.7%, respectively, 93.6% of which was explained by grain number depending on spikelet differentiation”
Claim · model-written summary
Grain abortion was the primary reason for maize yield reduction under water and salt stress.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e6“Grain abortion was identified as the primary reason for maize yield reduction under water and salt stress”
Claim · model-written summary
Reduction in total biomass, rather than biomass allocation, suppressed spikelet differentiation under water and salt stress.
- Treatment
- water and salt stresse7
- Outcome
- spikelet differentiatione7
- Qualifier
- reduction in total biomasse7
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Drought and soil salinization are threatening maize production in Northwest China”
e7“The reduction in total biomass, rather than biomass allocation suppressed spikelet differentiation under water and salt stress”
Claim · model-written summary
Water or salt single stress improved water use efficiency by 3.7%–17.5% by reducing evaporation, compared with no stress.
- Treatment
- Water or salt single stresse4
- Outcome
- water use efficiencye4
- Direction
- improvede4
- Value
- 3.7%–17.5%e4
- Qualifier
- by reducing evaporatione4
- Comparator
- no stresse4
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Drought and soil salinization are threatening maize production in Northwest China”
e4“Water or salt single stress improved water use efficiency (3.7%–17.5%) by reducing evaporation compared with no stress”
Claim · model-written summary
Water and salt combined stress significantly decreased maize productivity.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Drought and soil salinization are threatening maize production in Northwest China”
e2“Furthermore, water and salt combined stress significantly decreased maize productivity leading to reduction in water use efficiency”
Claim · model-written summary
Water and salt combined stress reduced water use efficiency.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Drought and soil salinization are threatening maize production in Northwest China”
e2“Furthermore, water and salt combined stress significantly decreased maize productivity leading to reduction in water use efficiency”
Claim · model-written summary
Reducing grain abortion to maintain grain number is key to alleviating maize yield loss and improving water use efficiency under water and salt stress.
- Outcome
- maize yield losse5
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Drought and soil salinization are threatening maize production in Northwest China”
e5“reducing grain abortion to maintain grain number is the key to alleviate maize yield loss and improve water use efficiency under water and salt stress”
The same questions in other papers
salinity · yield · Zea mays (maize)Results differ
60 papers in the same direction as this paper · 9 in the opposite direction
- negative
- positive
- positive
66 papers more in this group
See all 70 papers →abiotic · yield · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
5 papers in the same direction as this paper · 1 in the opposite direction
- positive
- negative
- negative
3 papers more in this group
See all 7 papers →salinity · physiology: water · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
10 papers in the same direction as this paper · 31 in the opposite direction
- negative
- positive
- negative
38 papers more in this group
See all 42 papers →irrigation · yield · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
224 papers in the same direction as this paper · 791 in the opposite direction
- positive
- positive
- negative
1,012 papers more in this group
See all 1,016 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.