Apple trees can extract soil water from both deep layers and neighboring cropland in the tableland region of Chinese Loess Plateau

It is of great significance to explore soil water distribution and consumptions of the agroforestry systems in water-deficient areas. In recent decades, continuous development of apple orchards in the southern Chinese Loess Plateau has formed the orchard-cropland mosaic vegetation pattern. In this study, soil water content (SWC) in two series were measured, (1) 0-21 m soil profiles of five apple orchards with different stand ages (5, 10, 15, 20 and 24 years) and one cropland; (2) 0-6 m soil profiles at different sites within the orchard-cropland border zone (with apple orchard aged 10 and 24 years old, denoted as AC10 and AC24, respectively). Results showed that (1) the water consumption depth of apple orchards increased in an "S"-shaped pattern with stand age and reached 20 m after 20 years, while the average SWC within 3-21 m layer decreased and the soil water deficits increased at a rate of 5.8 mm m  1 yr  1; and (2) the average SWC in 3-10 m layer of 15, 20 and 24-year-old orchards accounted for 69.3%, 64.2% and 57.9% of the field capacity, respectively, these proportions came to 71.2%, 67.4% and 61.1% in the 3-21 m layer, respectively; and (3) AC24 had greater influence on SWC of adjacent cropland than AC10. The soil water storage of 2-6 m layer in AC24 ranged from 713 mm to 879 mm within 7 m away from the orchard, which were significantly lower than those of 7-15 m away from the orchard (933-1042 mm). Overall, the apple tree root system can absorb soil water from a depth of 20 m in the vertical direction and up to 7 m from the adjacent cropland in the horizontal direction. Therefore, a reasonable orchardcropland mosaic pattern should be arranged in regional agricultural planning, so as to promote the optimized utilization of regional soil water resources, and to coordinate the development of fruit industry and food security, in which the width of a cropland can't be < 14 m.