Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
407,
Water-Saving Agriculture Special Issue, pp. 24272436, November 2004
doi:10.1093/jxb/erh213 Advance Access publication 30 July, 2004
Hamlyn G. Jones*
Plant Research Unit, Division of Environmental and Applied Biology, School of Life Sciences,
University of Dundee at SCRI, Invergowrie, Dundee DD2 5DA, UK
Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol. 55, No. 407, Society for Experimental Biology 2004; all rights reserved
2428 Jones
well-watered side of the root system and the drying side different crops and different climates, as required in the
primarily provides a signal to modify growth and stomatal water balance calculation, have been reviewed in detail by
aperture (Stoll et al., 2000a). Allen et al. (1999). Although the water balance approach
The range of crops to which RDI and PRD methods have is not very accurate, it has generally been found to be
been applied is increasing all the time, but their greatest sufficiently robust under a wide range of conditions.
successes have been in high-value horticultural and fruit Nevertheless it is subject to the serious problem that errors
crops, usually those where the harvested part of the plant is are cumulative over time. For this reason it is often
its reproductive organ. Applications of such techniques to necessary to recalibrate the calculated water balance at
extensive arable crops are in their infancy, although there intervals by using actual soil measurements, or sometimes
are some exciting preliminary reports (Kang et al., 2000, plant response measurements (as outlined below). Some of
2003). At present it is much less clear whether PRD or RDI the main advantages and disadvantages of the different
would be so valuable for vegetative crops, although irrigation scheduling approaches are outlined in Table 1.
appropriate application can be used to restrict growth, as A potential problem with all soil-water based approaches
is required for high quality in some ornamental crop species is that many features of the plants physiology respond
(RS Harrison-Murray, personal communication). directly to changes in water status in the plant tissues,
The choice of irrigation scheduling method depends to whether in the roots or in other tissues, rather than to
a large degree on the objectives of the irrigator and the changes in the bulk soil water content (or potential). The
irrigation system available. The more sophisticated sched- actual tissue water potential at any time therefore depends
transport system. In extreme cases, plants with good endog- Reduction in tissue (MPa) required to affect process
enous control systems maintain a stable leaf water status Process affected 0 1 2
over a wide range of evaporative demand or soil water
Cell growth
supplies; these plants are termed isohydric (Stocker, 1956), Wall synthesis
and include especially plants such as cowpea, maize, and Protein synthesis
poplar (Bates and Hall, 1981; Tardieu and Simonneau, Protochlorophyllide
Nitrate synthase
1998). This is by contrast with those species such as ABA accumulation
Fig. 2. (A) Illustration of the calculation of Idsos Crop Water Stress Index: CWSI=(TcanopyTnws)/(TdryTnws), showing the dependence of Tnws ( )
and Tdry (- - -) on air vapour pressure deficit (vpd, kPa). (B) Illustration of the effect of a given experimental noise (for example resulting from
measurement errors and variations in irradiance), indicated by the double-headed arrow, showing that the signal-to-noise ratio decreases markedly as the
vpd decreases from levels found in hot and arid/semi-arid climates to values typical in humid or maritime climates.
2434 Jones
2002), although their expense has meant that such systems automated irrigation controller based on thermal sensing of
have yet to be widely used. plant stress. Similar approaches have been applied in the
In addition to the use of the absolute temperature rise as field: for example, Evans et al. (2001) and Sadler et al.
stomata close, it has also been proposed that use may be (2002) mounted an array of 26 infrared thermometers
made of the fact that the variance of leaf temperature (IRTs) on a centre pivot irrigation system which they used
increases as stomata close (Fuchs, 1990). Indeed, this may to monitor irrigation efficiency, but had not developed the
be a more sensitive indicator of stomatal closure than is system to a stage where it could be used for fully automated
the temperature rise (Jones, 2004). Again, the introduction control. Colaizzi et al. (2003) have tested another system
of thermal cameras now makes the wider use of such that includes thermal sensing of canopy temperature on
approaches feasible, especially when combined with a large linear move irrigator (where the irrigator moves
automated image analysis. across the field). In another approach to the use of canopy
temperature that makes use of the thermal kinetic win-
dow, Upchurch et al. (1990) and Mahan et al. (2000) have
Automation
developed what they call a biologically identified optimal
The most widespread use of automated irrigation scheduling temperature interactive console for the control of trickle
systems is in the intensive horticultural, and especially the and other irrigation systems based on canopy temperature
protected cropping, sector. In general, the automated sys- measurements. In this direct control system, irrigation is
tems in common use are based on simple automated timer applied as canopy temperature exceeds a crop-specific