Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) has emerged as a pivotal global food crop. Consequently, it is imperative to explore sustainable and eco-friendly strategies to achieve sustainable sorghum production with a high yield. This study aimed to reveal the effects of irrigation management and nitrogen rates and their interactions on sorghum growth traits, yield and soil nitrate-N and ammonium-N accumulation to improve irrigation and nitrogen practices under drip irrigation. A 2-year (2021 and 2022) field experiment was conducted on drip-irrigated fertilized sorghum in Heilongjiang Province to investigate the effects of three lower levels of soil moisture (80% (HI), 70% (NI), and 60% (LI) of field capacity) with four nitrogen rates at 225, 150, 75 and 0 kg/ha (designated as HN, NN, LN and WN, respectively) on sorghum growth, yield and soil nitrogen accumulation. The results indicated that irrigation management and nitrogen rate interaction had a significant effect on sorghum growth (plant height, stem diameter, leaf area index (LAI), and SPAD value), yield, aboveground biomass and 0~60 cm soil nitrogen accumulation (p < 0.05). The NNHI treatment demonstrated the highest plant height (120.9 and 121.8 cm) and LAI (2.738 and 2.645) in 2021 and 2022, and there was a significant positive correlation between plant height, LAI, and yield (p < 0.01). However, the NNNI treatment exhibited the highest yield (7477.41 and 7362.27 kg/ha) in 2021 and 2022, sorghum yield increased and then decreased with an increase in irrigation management and nitrogen rate. In addition, soil nitrate-N and ammonium-N accumulation were significantly affected by the interaction of irrigation management and nitrogen rate (p < 0.05) while irrigation management had no significant effect on the accumulation of nitrate-N and ammonium-N. Soil nitrate-N and ammonium-N accumulation increased with the increasing nitrogen rate. Although yield differences between the NNNI and HNNI treatments were not significant, the NNNI treatment with a lower soil moisture limit of 70% field capacity and a nitrogen rate of 150 kg/ha accumulated 10.4% less nitrate-N in soil than the HNNI treatment, reduced risk of nitrate nitrogen leaching. The regression analysis indicated that the optimal irrigation management and nitrogen rate management practices of 71.93% of the soil moisture lower limit and 144.58 kg/ha of nitrogen rate was an optimal strategy for favorable sorghum growth, high-yielding and low soil nitrate-N accumulation of sorghum. This study provides a scientific reference for precise water and fertilizer management in sorghum.

Climate change refers to the statistically significant changes in the mean and dispersion values of meteorological factors. Characterizing potential evapotranspiration (ET₀) and its climatic causes will contribute to the estimation of the atmospheric water cycle under climate change. In this study, based on daily meteorological data from 26 meteorological stations in Heilongjiang Province from 1960 to 2019, ET₀ was calculated by the Penman–Monteith formula, linear regression method and the Mann–Kendall trend test were used to reveal the seasonal and inter-annual changing trend of ET₀. The sensitivity-contribution rate method was used to clarify the climatic factors affecting ET₀. The results showed that: (1) From 1960 to 2019, the maximum temperature (T_max), minimum temperature (T_min) and average temperature (T_mean) showed an increasing trend, with climate tendency rate of 0.22 °C per decade (10a), 0.49 °C/(10a), 0.36 °C/(10a), respectively. The relative humidity (RH), wind speed (U) and net radiation (Rn) showed a decreasing trend, with a climate tendency rate of −0.42%/(10a), −0.18 m/s/(10a), −0.08 MJ/m²/(10a), respectively. (2) ET₀ showed a decreasing trend on seasonal and inter-annual scales. Inter-annually, the average climate tendency rate of ET₀ was −8.69 mm/(10a). seasonally, the lowest climate tendency rate was −6.33 mm/(10a) in spring. (3) ET₀ was negatively sensitive to T_min, and RH, while positively sensitive to T_max, T_meanU and Rn, its sensitivity coefficient of U was the highest, which was 1.22. (4) The contribution rate of U to ET₀ was the highest on an inter-annual scale as well as in spring and autumn, which were −8.96%, −9.79% and −13.14%, respectively, and the highest contribution rate to ET₀ were Rn and T_min in summer and winter, whose contribution rates were −4.37% and −11.46%, respectively. This study provides an understanding on the response of evapotranspiration to climatic change and further provides support on the optimal allocation of regional water resource and agricultural water management under climate change.