Water deficiency caused by climate change is a global challenge for food security. Viable sustainable alternatives for enhancing water storage in the soil is a necessity for arid and drought prone regions. Water-absorbing polymer (WAP) is capable of improving the water storage in soil pores, and its efficacy can be ascertained by evaluating the resilience of plants towards wilting. The main objective of this study was field demonstration on the usefulness of fly ash-based WAP (FA-WAP) in prolonging wilting and plant survival time of beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and radish (Raphanus sativus) in a silt loam. This was achieved by following a novel methodology for determining plant permanent wilting point (PWP) by integrating both soil response (suction) and plant response (stomatal conductance and photosynthetic yield), as against the common practice of considering a reference negative water potential (or soil suction) value of 1500 kPa. Using the proposed methodology, the PWP was 1300 kPa and 1150 kPa for beans and radish, respectively. The measured soil water retention curves (SWRC) demonstrated higher water availability in the WAP-amended soil compared to the control soil for both plant species, thereby prolonging plant survival time. The presence of WAP positively influenced the plant biochemical parameters (such as H2O2, MDA, proline, CHL A+B) under water deficit conditions. The WAP amendment resulted in 2.3 and 1.4 times crop yield for beans and radish, respectively, compared to the unamended soil. The use of FA-WAP has a high potential to reduce the irrigation water demand without compromising the yield of two vegetable species considered in this study.

中文翻译：

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一项整合植物生理学-土壤响应的田间研究，用于量化聚合物改良土壤中的萎蔫和植物存活时间


气候变化导致的缺水是粮食安全面临的全球性挑战。对于干旱和易受干旱影响的地区来说，提高土壤储水能力的可行可持续替代方案是必不可少的。吸水聚合物 （WAP） 能够改善土壤孔隙中的储水能力，其功效可以通过评估植物对枯萎的恢复力来确定。本研究的主要目的是田间论证粉煤灰基棉水 （FA-WAP） 在延长豆类 （Phaseolus vulgaris） 和萝卜 （Raphanus sativus） 在淤泥壤土中的枯萎和植物存活时间方面的作用。这是通过遵循一种新的方法来确定植物永久枯萎点 （PWP） 来实现的，该方法通过整合土壤响应（吸力）和植物响应（气孔导度和光合产量），而不是通常考虑 1500 kPa 的参考负水势（或土壤吸力）值。使用所提出的方法，豆类和萝卜的 PWP 分别为 1300 kPa 和 1150 kPa。测量的土壤保水曲线 （SWRC） 表明，与对照土壤相比，两种植物物种的 WAP 改良土壤中的水分有效性更高，从而延长了植物的存活时间。在水分亏缺条件下，WAP 的存在对植物生化参数 （如 H2O2 、 MDA 、 脯氨酸 、 CHL A+B ）有积极影响。与未改良的土壤相比，WAP 改良剂使豆类和萝卜的作物产量分别提高了 2.3 倍和 1.4 倍。使用 FA-WAP 具有很大的潜力，可以在不影响本研究中考虑的两种蔬菜的产量的情况下减少灌溉用水需求。