<mods:mods version="3.3" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-3.xsd" xmlns:mods="http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"><mods:titleInfo><mods:title>Conservation Tillage Increases Water Use Efficiency of Spring Wheat by Optimizing Water Transfer in a Semi-Arid Environment</mods:title></mods:titleInfo><mods:name type="personal"><mods:namePart type="given">Z</mods:namePart><mods:namePart type="family">Peng</mods:namePart><mods:role><mods:roleTerm type="text">author</mods:roleTerm></mods:role></mods:name><mods:name type="personal"><mods:namePart type="given">L</mods:namePart><mods:namePart type="family">Wang</mods:namePart><mods:role><mods:roleTerm type="text">author</mods:roleTerm></mods:role></mods:name><mods:name type="personal"><mods:namePart type="given">J</mods:namePart><mods:namePart type="family">Xie</mods:namePart><mods:role><mods:roleTerm type="text">author</mods:roleTerm></mods:role></mods:name><mods:name type="personal"><mods:namePart type="given">L</mods:namePart><mods:namePart type="family">Li</mods:namePart><mods:role><mods:roleTerm type="text">author</mods:roleTerm></mods:role></mods:name><mods:name type="personal"><mods:namePart type="given">J A</mods:namePart><mods:namePart type="family">Coulter</mods:namePart><mods:role><mods:roleTerm type="text">author</mods:roleTerm></mods:role></mods:name><mods:name type="personal"><mods:namePart type="given">R</mods:namePart><mods:namePart type="family">Zhang</mods:namePart><mods:role><mods:roleTerm type="text">author</mods:roleTerm></mods:role></mods:name><mods:name type="personal"><mods:namePart type="given">Z</mods:namePart><mods:namePart type="family">Luo</mods:namePart><mods:role><mods:roleTerm type="text">author</mods:roleTerm></mods:role></mods:name><mods:name type="personal"><mods:namePart type="given">J</mods:namePart><mods:namePart type="family">Kholova</mods:namePart><mods:role><mods:roleTerm type="text">author</mods:roleTerm></mods:role></mods:name><mods:name type="personal"><mods:namePart type="given">S</mods:namePart><mods:namePart type="family">Choudhary</mods:namePart><mods:role><mods:roleTerm type="text">author</mods:roleTerm></mods:role></mods:name><mods:abstract>Water availability is a major constraint for crop production in semiarid environments.&#13;
The impact of tillage practices on water potential gradient, water transfer resistance, yield, and water&#13;
use e�ciency (WUEg) of spring wheat was determined on the western Loess Plateau. Six tillage&#13;
practices implemented in 2001 and their e�ects were determined in 2016 and 2017 including&#13;
conventional tillage with no straw (T), no-till with straw cover (NTS), no-till with no straw (NT),&#13;
conventional tillage with straw incorporated (TS), conventional tillage with plastic mulch (TP),&#13;
and no-till with plastic mulch (NTP). No-till with straw cover, TP, and NTP significantly improved&#13;
soil water potential at the seedling stage by 42, 47, and 57%, respectively; root water potential at the&#13;
seedling stage by 34, 35, and 51%, respectively; leaf water potential at the seedling stage by 37, 48,&#13;
and 42%, respectively; tillering stage by 21, 24, and 30%, respectively; jointing stage by 28, 32, and 36%,&#13;
respectively; and flowering stage by 10, 26, and 16%, respectively, compared to T. These treatments&#13;
also significantly reduced the soil–leaf water potential gradient at the 0–10 cm soil depth at the&#13;
seedling stage by 35, 48, and 35%, respectively, and at the 30–50 cm soil depth at flowering by 62,&#13;
46, and 65%, respectively, compared to T. Thus, NTS, TP, and NTP reduced soil–leaf water transfer&#13;
resistance and enhanced transpiration. Compared to T, the NTS, TP, and NTP practices increased&#13;
biomass yield by 18, 36, and 40%; grain yield by 28, 22, and 24%; and WUEg by 24, 26, and 24%,&#13;
respectively. These results demonstrate that no-till with straw mulch and plastic mulching with&#13;
either no-till or conventional tillage decrease the soil–leaf water potential gradient and soil–leaf water&#13;
transfer resistance and enhance sustainable intensification of wheat production in semi-arid areas.</mods:abstract><mods:classification authority="lcc">Semi-Arid Tropics</mods:classification><mods:classification authority="lcc">Wheat</mods:classification><mods:classification authority="lcc">Water Conservation</mods:classification><mods:originInfo><mods:dateIssued encoding="iso8061">2019-09</mods:dateIssued></mods:originInfo><mods:originInfo><mods:publisher>MDPI</mods:publisher></mods:originInfo><mods:genre>Article</mods:genre></mods:mods>