The middle Heihe River Basin (MHRB) in arid areas in China faces the
challenge of sustainability, but frequent over-irrigation deteriorated
the situation. The water balance and energy budget have not been widely
used for the quantifying evaluation of over-irrigation. Although some
studies have measured the energy budget and water balance in cropland,
the energy and water balance in pepper fields is still unclear. An
experiment was conducted using an eddy covariance system, SmartView
fluke and other measurements in MHRB. The leaf area index (LAI) for
pepper increased in the first two months, then decreased thereafter.
After Aug. 4, the daily evapotranspiration (ET) decreased during the
maturation stage. The soil moisture was higher than the field capacity
frequently, indicating that over-irrigation had occurred. Soil water
content was relatively high at 100 cm depth, causing high percolation.
The water inputs were 1.5 times ET, and the deep percolations accounted
for 74% of the total irrigation inputs. Irrigation water could be
conserved 301 mm, in case that percolation was avoided. Therefore, the
irrigation amount (per time and total) should be reduced to achieve high
water use efficiency (WUE). The latent heat flux (LE) consumed 80% of
the net radiation (Rn). In July, the LE/Rn was the highest among all
months, whereas H/Rn was the lowest due to the highest value of LAI in
July. The net radiation had a significant positive linear correlation
with the latent heat flux because of the high water supply. Our study
showed that there was considerable room for water conservation in MHRB.
Keywords: Sensible heat flux; Soil water content; Evapotranspiration;
Latent heat flux; Leaf area index