The Effect of Different Surface Coatings on reducing the Evaporation Rate

Iran is located in arid and semiarid areas; hence, it is essential to optimize the use of water resources, conserve, and reduce the loss of these resources. The use of mulch is one way to reduce water loss, especially in agriculture. This research was conducted in a completely randomized design in 2014. In order to investigate the effect of the amount and types of mulch on reducing soil surface moisture, nine treatments with three replications experiments were conducted in University of Birjand. The treatments were gravel mulch types (3 and 4), straw (10 and 20 g), coco peat (5 and 10 g), and zeolite (5 and 20 g). The treatments were saturated then weighed. The moisture loss per day was calculated for each treatment. The research showed that during testing the treatment, effect was significant at 1%. In addition, moisture content reduction did not change on a regular basis in none of the treatments. Moreover, it was found that the greatest effect in reducing evaporation from the soil surface obtained when coco peat, stubble, and straw were applied at 10, 10, and 20 g respectively). Comparing total evaporation after the completion of the experiment indicated that all treatments had positive and significant effect on reducing evaporation. The reduction of evaporation rate in treatments of straw 10 g, coco peat 10, gravel 4, and especially in straw 20 g was more than other treatments.