Influence of Vegetation Irrigation on Soil Moisture Regime and Productivity of Oats in the Lena River Valley

Abstract

In the summer of 2015 moisture regimes of permafrost meadow-chernozem soil under rainfed and irrigation in the area «Moydooh» of the agricultural firm «Nemyugyu» (3 km from the town of Pokrovsk) in the Khangalassky district of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) were studied. Summer of 2015 was extremely dry, and therefore on rainfed area due to extreme shortage of moisture in the root zone the crop of green mass of oats was 70 kg / ha., while at the irrigated ones thanks to irrigations (irrigation rate of 900 m³/ ha.) , the yield was 1.5 times higher. For the period from the 18^th of June to the 18^th of August 2015 the total water consumption in the irrigated area was 132 mm, and in the rainfed area – 65 mm. At the same time at both sites the main quantity of moisture was coming from the top half-meter of the soil strata.