Abstract Plastic mulching increases crop yield and water use efficiency (WUE). However, its sustainability in regard to crop productivity and inter-annual soil water balance is widely doubted. This study comprises a long-term field experiment (2010–2019), with spring maize and wheat treated as materials, and two treatments of (1) whole field plastic mulching (PM), and (2) without mulching (CK). The results showed that the soil water storage in the sowing stage decreased significantly in the 100–300 cm profile after 10 years of maize planting in both PM and CK, but there was no significant difference between PM and CK. For wheat, PM on average increased soil water storage by 30.1 mm in the 0–300 cm profile, but CK decreased it by 28.7 mm in the sowing stage in 2019. These results indicated that soil water depletion was caused by maize water uptake not PM. The PM significantly (P

中文翻译：

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在半干旱的雨养地区，塑料覆盖是否会不断增加作物产量，但会减少土壤水分？

摘要 塑料覆盖可提高作物产量和水分利用效率 (WUE)。然而，其在作物生产力和年际土壤水平衡方面的可持续性受到广泛质疑。本研究包括一项长期田间试验（2010-2019），以春玉米和小麦为材料，以及（1）全田地膜覆盖（PM）和（2）不覆盖（CK）两个处理。结果表明，玉米种植10年后，PM和CK在100-300 cm剖面的播种期土壤蓄水量显着下降，但PM和CK之间没有显着差异。对于小麦，在 0-300 cm 剖面中，PM 平均增加了 30.1 mm 的土壤储水量，但 CK 在 2019 年播种阶段减少了 28.7 mm。这些结果表明，土壤水分耗竭是由玉米吸水而不是 PM 引起的。PM显着（P