ArticleFrontiers in plant science2026
Irrigation and phosphorus fertilization regulate trade-offs among yield, forage quality, and resource-use efficiency in alfalfa production under arid and semi-arid conditions.
Article in Frontiers in plant science, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: Optimizing water-phosphorus coupling is essential for resolving the trade-offs among high yield, improved forage quality, efficient resource use, and soil nutrient sustainability in alfalfa production in arid and semi-arid regions. Yet, how irrigation regimes and phosphorus fertilization jointly regulate these interconnected agronomic, physiological, quality-related, and soil nutrient responses remains unclear. Methods: A two-year field experiment was during the 2024 and 2025 growing seasons, using three irrigation regimes: W1, moderate water stress; W2, mild water stress; and W3, full irrigation, combined with three phosphorus levels: P0, P50, and P100. Alfalfa yield, irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE), phosphorus agronomic efficiency (AEP), plant morphology, forage quality, leaf photosynthetic traits, and soil available nutrients in the 0-60 cm soil profile were measured across three cuttings. Principal component analysis and correlation analysis were used to evaluate the integrated effects of water-phosphorus coupling. Results: Irrigation, phosphorus fertilization, and year significantly affected alfalfa yield, IWUE, plant morphology, and photosynthetic characteristics, while their interactions significantly influenced yield, IWUE, agronomic phosphorus efficiency (AEP), plant morphology, forage quality, and photosynthetic characteristics, as well as soil nutrient status, whereas interaction effects varied among indicators. Across treatments, W3P50 produced the highest yield, with no significant difference from W3P100. Under P50, W2P50 and W3P50 increased yield by 5.3% and 7.9%, respectively, compared with W1P50, while under P100, W2P100 and W3P100 increased yield by 4.0% and 5.0%, respectively, compared with W1P100. Under W2 and W3, P50 and P100 produced significantly higher IWUE than P0, but no significant difference was observed between P50 and P100, indicating that moderate phosphorus input was sufficient under improved irrigation conditions. W2P50 and W3P50 showed higher AEP than W1P50 and W3P100. W2P50 and W3P50 also significantly increased crude protein content compared with W1P50. Full irrigation enhanced Pn, Tr, and Gs, while W2P50 and W3P50 maintained higher intrinsic water-use efficiency (WUEi). The entropy-weighted TOPSIS evaluation showed that W2P50 had the highest comprehensive score, followed by W3P50 and W2P100. Discussion: Water-phosphorus coupling regulated alfalfa production by coordinating soil nutrient availability, photosynthetic capacity, plant growth, forage quality, and resource-use efficiency. W2P50 showed the best overall performance by maintaining stable yield while improving AEP, IWUE, and forage quality, and is therefore recommended as an optimized water-saving and phosphorus-efficient strategy.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.