## 2 Materials and Methods
### Continuous Monitoring of Agro- and Micro-Meteorological Variables  
The EC flux tower was established in the center of the field a few days prior to the installation of the mulching film, specifically on 25 May 2023. The equipment comprised a three-dimensional sonic anemometer (uSonic 3 Scientific, Metek GmbH, 25337 Elmshorn, Germany) and a fast response open-path infrared gas analyzer (LI-7500, Li-COR Inc., Lincoln, NE, USA). The three wind components, sonic temperature and atmospheric concentrations of CO\({}_{2}\) and H\({}_{2}\)O were continuously measured at 1.5 m above the crop canopy, with the sensor height adjusted to follow crop growth, reaching a maximum of 1.75 m. The gas analyzer was positioned 0.32 m laterally from the anemometer to avoid airflow distortions, endeavoring measurement of the same air parcels. Micrometeorological data were recorded at a frequency of 10 Hz on a dedicated computer using the MeteoFlux software (Servizi Territorio, S.n.c., Cinisello Balsamo, Italy) and were stored on an hourly scale. Post-processing and computation of hourly fluxes of H\({}_{2}\)O (Fq, mmol m\({}^{-2}\) s\({}^{-1}\)) and CO\({}_{2}\) (Fc, umol m\({}^{-2}\) s\({}^{-1}\)) were conducted using EddyPro(r) software, v7.0.9 ([[http://www.licon.com/eddypro](http://www.licon.com/eddypro)]([http://www.licon.com/eddypro](http://www.licon.com/eddypro)), last accessed on 12 June 2024), applying 60 min block averaging, double coordinate rotation, the statistical test [32], the maximum cross-covariance method, and the WPL density correction [33].  
Continuous hourly meteorological data, including air temperature (Ta, \({}^{\circ}\)C), relative humidity (RH, %), precipitation (P, mm), global radiation (Rg, W m\({}^{-2}\)) and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR, mmol m\({}^{-2}\)) were collected from an automatic weather station equipped with standard sensors, situated in proximity to the experimental field.  
Soil water content in volume (\(\theta\), m\({}^{3}\) m\({}^{-3}\)) was measured by capacitive probes (10 HS, Decagon Devices Inc., Pullman, WA, USA). Three points were monitored: two along the row below the multiched surface (\(\theta_{r}\)) and one between the rows (\(\theta_{ir}\)). At each point, two capacitive probes were installed horizontally into the soil profile and transversely to the row, at depths of \(-0.15\) m and \(-0.30\) m. These sensors were connected to dataloggers (Tecno.el srl, Roncade, Italy) with data stored hourly and averaged daily. Integrated soil water content for the profile was calculated by integrating values measured at each depth, as described in [34]. The \(\theta\) measurements from the three points were pooled to obtain a single mean value as [35; 36]:  
\[\theta=0.7\overline{\theta_{r}}+0.3\theta_{ir}, \tag{1}\]  
where \(\overline{\theta_{r}}\) is the mean of the two \(\theta\) measurements along the rows. Soil water availability was determined by the relative extractable water (REW, unitless, [37]) calculated as:  
\[REW=\frac{\theta-\theta_{min}}{\theta_{max}-\theta_{min}}, \tag{2}\]  
where \(\theta_{min}\) and \(\theta_{max}\) represent the minimum and maximum soil water content, respectively, observed during the experiment.