Table 1.
Initial soil properties along the root zone profile before tillage treatments in 2011.
Table 2.
Soil conditions (soil bulk density and soil moisture)before the tillage treatment in 2012.
Fig 1.
Diagrammatic representation of soil core sampling in the field plot.
Fig 2.
Changes of average temperature and accumulated precipitation during the growth stage of maize in 2011 and 2012.
Table 3.
Effects of tillage managements on maize yield in two years.
Table 4.
Effects of tillage managements on maize dry matter in two years.
Fig 3.
Soil bulk density in 0–50 cm depths at maize Tasseling stage under three tillage managements in 2012.
Error bars represent as the standard error of the mean. Different letters above the error bars indicate significant differences at the 0.05 level (ANOVA and Duncan’s multiple range test), n = 3.
Fig 4.
Soil moisture content(in the 50×50×10 cm3 soil volume) in 0–50 cm depths under three tillage managements in 2012.
Error bars represent as the standard error of the mean.
Fig 5.
Spatial distribution of soil moisture in 0–50 cm depths at VT under three tillage managements in 2012.
Solid arrows above each figure represent the position of maize growth centre.
Fig 6.
Horizontal distribution of soil moisture in each 10 cm soil profile at VT under three tillage managements in 2012.
Solid arrows represent the position of maize growth centre.
Fig 7.
Total root length (in the 50×50×10 cm3 soil volume) in 0–50 cm depths under three tillage managements in 2012.
Error bars represent as the standard error of the mean.
Fig 8.
Spatial distribution of maize root in 0–50 cm depths at VT under three tillage managements in 2012.
Numbers above each figure represent as the mean root length density in each soil depth. Solid arrows above each figure represent the position of maize growth centre.
Fig 9.
Horizontal distribution of maize root in 0–50 cm depths at VT under three tillage managements in 2012.
Solid arrows above each figure represent the position of maize growth centre.
Fig 10.
Simulated root architectures of maize at VT under three tillage managements in 2012.
Fig 11.
Coordination distribution of soil moisture (up), total nitrogen (middle) and root system (bottom) of maize in 0–50 cm depths at VT under three tillage managements in 2012.