Response of Crop Plant Growth and Water Use to Different Irrigation Regimes

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Use and Irrigation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 3506

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With global warming, drought has become a key constraint for agricultural productivity. The frequency of droughts will significantly increase under climate changes, especially in arid/semi-arid regions. Therefore, efficient irrigation management is central to the challenge of balancing increasing drought events and water demands.

Recent progress have revealed regulation of irrigation scheduling on crop growth and development, yield and its composition, and have developed models for simulating crop response to irrigation scheduling at different growing stages. While mechanism and simulation of crop physiological response to different irrigation regimes challenge our current understanding. This Special Issue aims to bring light into the complexity of irrigation management on crop phenotype, physiological and biochemical process under different scenarios.

Characterize and quantify responses of crop physiology and biochemistry to different irrigation regimes; Priming of irrigation on crop physiology and yield; Regulation of phytohormone on crop growth and yield formation under difference scenarios of irrigation: from cell to plant; Water and nutrients transport from root to shoot under different irrigation regimes.  

Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited.

Dr. Yang Gao
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • crop and water relations
  • physiological response
  • phytohormone
  • modeling

Published Papers (3 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

19 pages, 3215 KiB  
Article
Responses of Tomato Crop and Water Productivity to Deficit Irrigation Strategies and Salinity Stress in Greenhouse
by Akram K. Alshami, Ahmed El-Shafei, Abdulrasoul M. Al-Omran, Abdulaziz G. Alghamdi, Ibrahim Louki and Arafat Alkhasha
Agronomy 2023, 13(12), 3016; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13123016 - 08 Dec 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 794
Abstract
Saudi Arabia faces water scarcity and inadequate sustainable sources, particularly in agriculture, necessitating efficient irrigation water management to improve productivity amidst rising demand. The study investigated the impact of irrigation levels and water salinity on tomato plants in greenhouses, covering four irrigation levels [...] Read more.
Saudi Arabia faces water scarcity and inadequate sustainable sources, particularly in agriculture, necessitating efficient irrigation water management to improve productivity amidst rising demand. The study investigated the impact of irrigation levels and water salinity on tomato plants in greenhouses, covering four irrigation levels (100%, 80%, 60%, and 40% of ETc) and three water sources (FW (0.9 dS·m−1), SW (3.6 dS·m−1) and MW (2.25 dS·m−1)). Salinity impacts crop yield, physiological responses, and fruit quality. The photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, transpiration, and chlorophyll content decrease with MW and SW, negatively affecting morphological characteristics. For MW, it was recommended to apply 60% deficit irrigation with a yield of 98 kg·ha−1, and water productivity (WP) improved to 21.93 kg·m−3 compared to 13.65 kg·m−3 at full irrigation (FI). In SW, 80% irrigation was suggested, as there was no significant difference in yield compared to FI. For FW, 60% deficit irrigation produced the best water conservation (104.58 kg·ha−1 yield and 23.19 kg·m−3 WP), while FI produced the highest yield per unit area (123.48 kg·ha−1 yield and 16.51 kg·m−3 WP). Nonetheless, greater water and salinity stress was associated with increased fruit quality measures such as total acidity, vitamin C, and soluble solids. The results show that implementing deficit irrigation with salinity strategies in greenhouse tomatoes could improve crop adaptability, yield, and water productivity in the face of water scarcity and salinity variability. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 2516 KiB  
Article
The Effect of Increasing Irrigation Rates on the Carbon Isotope Discrimination of Apple Leaves
by Jan Haberle, Ivana Raimanová, Pavel Svoboda, Michal Moulik, Martin Mészáros and Gabriela Kurešová
Agronomy 2023, 13(6), 1623; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13061623 - 16 Jun 2023
Viewed by 760
Abstract
13C discrimination (Δ13C) has been used in research as an indicator of water availability in crops; however, few data are available concerning fruit trees. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of irrigation on the Δ13 [...] Read more.
13C discrimination (Δ13C) has been used in research as an indicator of water availability in crops; however, few data are available concerning fruit trees. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of irrigation on the Δ13C values of apple leaves. We assumed that Δ13C would increase with irrigation intensity. The Δ13C of apple trees (Malus domestica) cv. ‘Red Jonaprince’ was determined in the years 2019–2022. Leaf samples were collected in spring, in June, at the beginning of the irrigation campaign, and in autumn, in September, following the harvest. The irrigation doses were applied to replenish the water consumption, 0% (ET0), 50% (ET50), 75% (ET75), and 100% (ET100), of the calculated evapotranspiration (ET) levels. In November, the leaves collected from different positions on the shoots were sampled, assuming the Δ13C signature would reflect the changes occurring in the water supply during their growth. The irrigation rates had a significant effect on the Δ13C of the leaves when the data for the spring and summer months were pooled. On average, Δ13C increased from 20.77‰ and 20.73‰ for ET0 and ET50, respectively, to 20.80‰ and 20.95‰ for ET75 and ET100, respectively. When the data obtained for the spring and summer months were analysed separately, the effect of irrigation was weak (p < 0.043). The Δ13C value was always higher for treatment ET100 than treatment ET0, for individual experimental years and terms; however, the differences were minor and mostly insignificant. The leaf position had a strong significant effect on Δ13C; the values gradually decreased from the leaves growing from two-years-old branches (22.50‰) to the youngest leaves growing at the top of the current year’s shoots (21.07‰). This order was similar for all the experimental years. The results of the experiment suggest that 13C discrimination in apples is affected not only by water availability during growth, but also by the use of C absorbed in previous years. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 4712 KiB  
Article
Effects of Aerosol on Reference Crop Evapotranspiration: A Case Study in Henan Province, China
by Shengfeng Wang, Xinmiao Xu, Longwei Lei and Yang Gao
Agronomy 2023, 13(1), 82; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13010082 - 26 Dec 2022
Viewed by 987
Abstract
An increase in atmospheric pollution markedly affects the climatic environment. Aerosol is the main component of atmospheric pollutants and has a significant influence on the changes of reference crop evapotranspiration (ET0), while the effects of aerosol on ET0 are [...] Read more.
An increase in atmospheric pollution markedly affects the climatic environment. Aerosol is the main component of atmospheric pollutants and has a significant influence on the changes of reference crop evapotranspiration (ET0), while the effects of aerosol on ET0 are still unclear. In this study, the influence of aerosol on the changes in meteorological elements and ET0 in Henan Province was evaluated using online two-way coupling of WRF (Weather Research Forecast)–Chem. The results of the 30-day Online Two-way Coupling indicated that the WRF–Chem model accurately simulated the temporal and spatial variation of each meteorological element in Henan Province. Aerosol decreased the overall temperature in Henan Province by 0.036 °C, wind speed by 0.176 m s−1, and barometric pressure by 20 Pa, while the relative humidity increased by 1.39%. The effect of aerosol on meteorological elements led to the change in ET0. The extent of the effect of aerosol on ET0 was closely related to the aerosol concentration. The variation of ET0 ranged from −0.545 to 0.676 mm d−1 for a pollution condition and −0.309 to 0.380 mm d−1 for an excellent condition. The extent of the effect of aerosol on ET0 varied among regions, and the variation of ET0 showed distinct spatial patterns under different pollution levels. The varying degree of ET0 in the daytime (ET0-d) was greater than ET0-n (ET0 in the nighttime) regardless of the circumstances. Shortwave aerosol radiative forcing was the main cause of this phenomenon. For an excellent condition, aerosol showed positive regulation of ET0-d in 63% of the regions and of ET0-n in 88% of the regions. ET0-A (aerodynamic term of ET0) plays a dominant role in ET0 changes in most of Henan Province. However, as the pollution level increased, more urban ET0-R (radiation term of ET0) also began to dominate the ET0 changes. These results contribute to an in-depth understanding of the response of regional evapotranspiration to atmospheric pollutants and climate change. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop