Abstract:A pond-based experiment with winter wheat cultivars (Triticum aestivum L.) was conducted under rainproof shelter during the growing seasons of 2016—2017 to investigate the effects of regulated deficit irrigation under alternate furrow irrigation on physio-biochemical characteristics and yield of winter wheat. Five experimental treatments were included, conventional border irrigation (T1, the soil water content in planned moisture layer was controlled at 65%~75% field capacity (FC ) throughout growing season), alternate furrow irrigation (T2, two root-zones were alternatively irrigated during the consecutive irrigation, the soil water content with values of (55%~65%)FC and 95% FC were considered as the lower limit and the upper limit for irrigation, respectively), T3, T4 and T5 were defined as alternative furrowregulated deficit irrigation (the soil water content in planned moisture layer was controlled at (55%~65%)FC at the beginning of returning greenstem elongation, stem elongationear emergence, and ear emergencematurity period), respectively. When the soil water content at the soil layer of a given treatment fell below the lower limit of the target range during the waterdeficit treatment period, it was replenished to 95% FC. Three treatments (T3, T4 and T5) received irrigation water at the T2 level during the unstressed stages. The photosynthetic characteristics, proline and soluble sugar content of flag leaf after anthesis and wheat yield components and so on were measured. The results indicated that the net photosynthetic rate and transpiration rate of the border irrigation were higher than those of alternate furrow irrigation and alternate furrowregulated deficit irrigation treatments, butthe higher leaf water use efficiency under the alternate furrow irrigation was demonstrated. Alternate furrow irrigation treatment and alternate furrowregulated deficit irrigation treatments had a lower yield than that of the border irrigation, but it didn’t reach a significant level (P>0.05) for T1 and T2. The yields of T2 and T3 were decreased by an average of 1.98% (P>0.05) and 568% (P<0.05) respectively, but their water consumptions were decreased by an average of 1001% (P<0.01) and 16.91% (P<0.01) respectively, and their WUE were increased by 9.04% (P<0.05) and 15.82% (P<0.01) respectively. The present results suggested that alternate furrow-regulated deficit irrigation applying suitable water deficit （55%~65%）FC during returning green stage under alternate furrow irrigation was the better irrigation model to save water and achieve high grain yield in winter wheat.
