Effect of tillage and water table control on evapotranspiration, surface runoff, tile drainage and soil water content under maize on a clay loam soil

Two tillage and two water table control treatments under continuous maize cropping were evaluated over a 3-year period (1992–1994) for their effects on evapotranspiration, surface runoff (SR), tile drainage (TD) and soil water content in the root-zone on a clay loam soil in southern Ontario. The tillage treatments included soil saver (SS, reduced tillage) and moldboard plow (MP, conventional tillage). The water table control treatments included controlled drainage-subirrigation (CDS) and regular tile drainage (DR). There was no significant difference (P<0.05) in evapotranspiration estimates between the SS and MP tillage treatments. The SS tillage increased SR compared with MP tillage during the non-cropping periods in 1993 and 1994, but not in 1992. Relative to MP, the SS tillage increased soil profile water content during the cropping period but decreased soil profile water content during the non-cropping period in 1992. The CDS treatment produced significantly higher (P<0.05) evapotranspiration and soil water content than the drainage treatment during the dry 1993 and 1994 years, but not during the wet 1992 year. The CDS treatment also had significantly lower (P<0.05) TD and higher SR than the drainage treatment. For all the treatments, over 65% of SR and TD occurred in the 5 month non-cropping period from November to March. Of the total annual water input (precipitation and/or subirrigation) to the field site, 8% was partitioned to SR, 30% was partitioned to TD, 55% was removed by crop and soil evapotranspiration and 7% was accounted for by changes in soil profile water content.