Mathematical simulation of soil evaporation from wheat/maize intercropping field

Soil evaporation is one of the most important components of crop field water balances, especially in arid and semiarid environments where soil evaporation can be prominent due to incomplete cover. The primary objects of this were to develop a mathematic model that was suitable for the inter-cropping system and then use this model for analyzing the soil evaporation from a wheat/maize inter-cropping field. In this study, the Ritchie model and specific light transmission models were combined together to simulate the soil evaporation from an inter-cropping system. The performance of the models was evaluated with micro-lysimeter measured values. Soil evaporation data from two dry circles of bare soil after rain and irrigation were used to calculate the parameter alpha of the Ritchie model and a value of 4.62 was derived. The results of this study implied that some evaporation reducing actions should be applied to improve water use efficiency of this inter-cropping system.