Abstract: This study aimed to explore the impacts of corn straw strip mulching on soil moisture, temperature, and winter wheat yield in farmland located on the Loess Plateau, and to seek an appropriate straw strip mulching technique tailored for winter wheat cultivation in this region. The winter wheat cultivar “Kangzhuang 974” served as the test subject, with straw strip mulching implemented in configurations of 3 rows (S3, 58.8% coverage), 4 rows (S4, 50.0% coverage), and 5 rows (S5, 41.7% coverage). Plastic film mulching (PM, mulching coverage 100.0%) and no mulching (CK) were used as controls. The results showed that, compared to CK, the straw strip mulching treatments significantly boosted soil moisture across the entire 0-200 cm soil profile during the entire growing season by 14.1%, with an order of S3 > S4 > S5. Across different growth stages, S3 exhibited the highest increase during the maturity stage (32.5%), whereas S5 showed the smallest increase during the seeding stage (1.8%). The strongest moisture increase was observed in the 0-20 cm layer for S3 (32.8%), with the least increase found in the 180-200 cm layer for S5 (4.5%). Water storage in the 0-200 cm soil layer peaked at maturity, with S3, S4, and S5 increasing by 31.1%, 21.5%, and 9.2%, respectively. Within soil layers, S4 showed the largest increase at 180 cm (10.3%), while S5 demonstrated the smallest increase (1.1%). Throughout the entire growing season under PM, soil moisture and water storage in the 0-200 cm layer increased by 20.3% and 19.7%, respectively. Straw strip mulching significantly reduced the average soil temperature of 0-25 cm layer during the whole growth period of winter wheat by 1.67-3.14 ℃, and the total effective accumulated soil temperature by 12.6%-30.8%. S3 had the largest cooling range, followed by S4 and S5. PM showed a warming effect during the whole growth period of winter wheat. In terms of yield components, S5 enhanced yield, water use efficiency (WUE), panicle number, and panicle number per unit area by 9.8%, 13.8%, 1.8%, and 22.0%, respectively, but reduced 1000-grain weight by 11.7%. PM increased yield and WUE by 26.5% and 47.9%, respectively. Therefore, considering yield formation, WUE, and moisture retention benefits, S5 is a suitable planting and mulching method for arid winter wheat cultivation on the Loess Plateau.

Key words: winter wheat, straw strip mulching, soil moisture, soil temperature, yield