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Evapotranspiration and Plant Irrigation Strategies

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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water, Agriculture and Aquaculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 52545

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Maria Isabel Freire Ribeiro Ferreira

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Guest Editor

Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, LEAF, Lisboa, Portugal
Interests: evapotranspiration; transpiration; soil evaporation; sap flow; eddy covariance; water stress diagnosis; stress-indicator interpretation; irrigation scheduling; fluxes of water and heat around vegetation; ecohydrology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Arturo Alvino

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences, University of Molise, 86100 Campobasso, Italy
Interests: agriculture; crop management; horticultural crops; irrigation; precision agriculture; remote sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of the journal Water will present the state of art of the factors (ecological, physiological, physical, agronomic, economic, genetic and socio-economic factors, etc.) affecting evapotranspiration and irrigation strategies. Appropriate and precise estimations of evapotranspiration (water consumed) and water supplied to crops (rainfall and irrigation) may contribute positively to food security and food safety, while contributing to climate change mitigation and the reduction of groundwater pollution.

Herewith a non-exhaustive list of topics related to this Special Issue (in alphabetical order):

Crop coefficients estimations (traditional and innovative methods, as with remote sensing,
Crop sensors for estimating crop water status,
Economics of irrigation water management,
Effective rainfall,
Effects of reduced amount of soil organic matter on irrigation strategies,
Genetic studies to improve water-use efficiency of cultivated crops for different purposes (agriculture, landscapes, land degradation, etc.).
Irrigation management for specialty crops
Irrigation management for urban horticulture,
Irrigation water quality,
Measuring soil moisture and soil water holding capacity,
Partitioning of evapotranspiration in remote sensing-based models,
Precision irrigation for farm sustainability and environmental protection,
Soil conditioners and mulches for enhancing soil properties, in particular soil water availability,
Solar fertigation and other environmentally-friendly irrigation methods, and
Variable rate irrigation,

Each of the above topics may contribute in meeting crop demand for optimum water productivity. The Guest Editors are confident that scientists will join this Special Issue by submitting papers on “Evapotranspiration and Plant Irrigation Strategies”.

Prof. Dr. Maria Isabel Freire Ribeiro Ferreira
Prof. Dr. Arturo Alvino
Guest Editors

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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. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

Irrigation scheduling
Irrigation planning
Evapotranspiration
Agronomy
Plant-water relationship

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Published Papers (12 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 3838 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Global Sensitivity Analysis and Calibration by Differential Evolution Algorithm of HORTSYST Crop Model for Fertigation Management

by Antonio Martínez-Ruiz, Agustín Ruiz-García, J. Víctor Prado-Hernández, Irineo L. López-Cruz, J. Olaf Valencia-Islas and Joel Pineda-Pineda

Water 2021, 13(5), 610; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13050610 - 26 Feb 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2639

Abstract

Sensitivity analysis is the first step in elucidating how the uncertainties in model parameters affect the uncertainty in model outputs. Calibration of dynamic models is another issue of considerable interest, which is usually carried out by optimizing an objective function. The first aim of this research was to perform a global sensitivity analysis (GSA) with Sobol’s method for the 16 parameters of the new HORTSYST nonlinear model that simulates photo–thermal time

(P T I)

, daily dry matter production

(D M P),

nitrogen uptake

(N u p)

, leaf area index

(L A I)

, and crop transpiration

(E T_{c})

. The second objective was to carry out the calibration of the HORTSYST model by applying a differential evolution (DE) algorithm as the global optimization method. Two tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) crops were established during the autumn–winter and spring–summer seasons under greenhouse and soilless culture conditions. Plants were distributed with a density of 3.5 plants m⁻². Air temperature and relative humidity were measured with an S-THB-M008 model sensor. Global solar radiation was measured with an S-LIB-M003 sensor connected to a U-30-NRC datalogger. In the sensitivity analysis run in the two growth stages, it was observed that a greater number of parameters were more important at the beginning of fructification than at the end of crop growth for 10% and 20% of the variation of the parameters. The sensitivity analysis came up with nine parameters (

R U E

a

b

c_{1}

c_{2}

A

B_{d}

B_{n}

, and

P T I i n i

) as the most important of the HORTSYST model, which were included in the calibration process with the DE algorithm. The best fit, according to

R M S E

, was for

L A I

, followed by

N u p

D M P

, and

E T_{c}

for both crop seasons; the

R M S E

was close to zero, indicating a good prediction of the model’s performance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evapotranspiration and Plant Irrigation Strategies)

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Figure 1

20 pages, 3578 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Response and Modeling of Hybrid Maize Seed Vigor to Water Deficit at Different Growth Stages

by Rongchao Shi, Ling Tong, Taisheng Du and Manoj K. Shukla

Water 2020, 12(11), 3289; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12113289 - 23 Nov 2020

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 3091

Abstract

Research is imperative to predict seed vigor of hybrid maize production under water deficit in arid areas. Field experiments were conducted in 2018 and 2019 in arid areas of northwestern China to investigate the effects of different irrigation strategies at various growth stages with drip irrigation under film mulching on grain yield, kernel weight, seed protein content, and seed vigor of hybrid maize (Zea mays L.). Water deficit at vegetative, flowering, and grain-filling stages was considered and a total of 16 irrigation treatments was applied. A total of 12 indices of germination percentage, germination index (GI), shoot length (SL), and root length (RL) under different germination conditions (standard germination and accelerated aging); electrical conductivity (EC) of the leachate; and activities of peroxidase, catalase, and superoxide dismutase in seeds were measured and analyzed using the combinational evaluation method (CEM). Furthermore, five water production functions (Blank, Stewart, Rao, Jensen, and Minhas) were used to predict seed vigor evaluated by CEM under water deficit. The results showed that leachate EC was higher under water deficit than that under sufficient irrigation. The SL, RL, and GI of different germination conditions increased under water deficit at the flowering stage. The Rao model was considered the best fitted model to predict the vigor of hybrid maize seeds under water deficit, and an appropriate water deficit at the flowering stage is recommended to ensure high seed vigor of hybrid maize production with drip irrigation under film mulching. Our findings would be useful for reducing crop water use while ensuring seed vigor for hybrid maize production in arid areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evapotranspiration and Plant Irrigation Strategies)

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21 pages, 4331 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Interannual Variations of Evapotranspiration and Water Use Efficiency over an Oasis Cropland in Arid Regions of North-Western China

by Haibo Wang, Xin Li and Junlei Tan

Water 2020, 12(5), 1239; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12051239 - 26 Apr 2020

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4126

Abstract

The efficient use of limited water resources and improving the water use efficiency (WUE) of arid agricultural systems is becoming one of the greatest challenges in agriculture production and global food security because of the shortage of water resources and increasing demand for food in the world. In this study, we attempted to investigate the interannual trends of evapotranspiration and WUE and the responses of biophysical factors and water utilization strategies over a main cropland ecosystem (i.e., seeded maize, Zea mays L.) in arid regions of North-Western China based on continuous eddy-covariance measurements. This paper showed that ecosystem WUE and canopy WUE of the maize ecosystem were 1.90 ± 0.17 g C kg⁻¹ H₂O and 2.44 ± 0.21 g C kg⁻¹ H₂O over the observation period, respectively, with a clear variation due to a change of irrigation practice. Traditional flood irrigation generally results in over-irrigation, providing more water than actual crop requirements. Unlike flood irrigation, which can infiltrate into deep soil layers, drip irrigation can only influence the shallow soil moisture, which can lead to decreases of soil moisture of approximately 27–32% and 36–42% compared with flood irrigation for shallow and deep layers, respectively. Additionally, drip irrigation decreases evapotranspiration by 13% and transpiration by 11–14%, leading to increases in ecosystem and canopy WUE of 9–14% and 11%, respectively, compared to the traditional irrigation practice. Therefore, the drip irrigation strategy is an effective method to reduce irrigation water use and increase crop WUE in arid regions. Our study provides guidance to water-saving cultivation systems and has implications for sustainable water resources management and agriculture development in water-limited regions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evapotranspiration and Plant Irrigation Strategies)

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17 pages, 4284 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Parameterization of the Surface Energy Balance of a Shallow Water Table Grassland

by Qianguang Tu, Chunmei Cheng and Peng Qin

Water 2020, 12(2), 523; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12020523 - 13 Feb 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2638

Abstract

Extending instantaneous latent heat flux to daily, monthly, or even yearly evapotranspiration (ET) is a fundamental issue in using remote sensing to estimate ET at local and regional scales. In this study, the extending parameterizations of the surface energy balance of a mid-latitude grassland with shallow water table (SWT) at diurnal and seasonal time scales are examined based on data measured by the eddy covariance system and automated weather station from Wageningen University from June 2014 to October 2018. The results show that the ratio of turbulent heat flux to available surface energy (often called budget closure rate) ranges between 0.86 and 0.93 for warm times (March to October), and between 0.59 and 0.77 for cold times (November to February the following year). The parameterization models used to approximate the surface albedo and evaporative fraction (EF) are also evaluated. Although obvious variation under clear skies during daytime are observed, the constant EF and albedo method provided an acceptable estimation of the daily scale ET with an underestimation of about 6–8% for the grassland with SWT and parameterization of diurnal correction shows little improvement in both the bias and RMSE. The progression of daily ET shows a seasonal cycle, which follows the variation of the net radiation flux. These results will be helpful for estimating ET at daily and long temporal scales based on satellite remote sensing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evapotranspiration and Plant Irrigation Strategies)

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14 pages, 2619 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Parameterization and Application of Stanghellini Model for Estimating Greenhouse Cucumber Transpiration

by Haofang Yan, Song Huang, Chuan Zhang, Miriam Coenders Gerrits, Guoqing Wang, Jianyun Zhang, Baoshan Zhao, Samuel Joe Acquah, Haimei Wu and Hanwen Fu

Water 2020, 12(2), 517; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12020517 - 13 Feb 2020

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3542

Abstract

Accurate estimation of transpiration (T_r) is important in the development of precise irrigation scheduling and to enhance water-use efficiency in agricultural production. In this study, the air temperature (T_a) and relative humidity (RH) were measured at three different heights (0.5, 1.0, and 1.8 m above the ground near the plant canopy) parameterize aerodynamic resistance (r_a) based on the heat transfer coefficient method and to estimate T_r using the Stanghellini model (SM) during two growing seasons of cucumber in a greenhouse. The canopy resistance (r_c) was parameterized by an exponential relationship of stomata resistance and solar radiation, and the estimated T_r was compared to the values measured with lysimeters. After parameterization of r_a and r_c, the efficiency (EF) and the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of the estimated T_r by the SM based on micrometeorological data at a height of 0.5 m were 95% and 18 W m⁻², respectively, while the corresponding values were 86% and 29 W m⁻² at a height of 1.8 m for the autumn planting season. For the spring planting season, the EF and RMSE were 92% and 34 W m⁻² at a height of 0.5 m, while the corresponding values were 81% and 56 W m⁻² at a height of 1.8 m, respectively. This work demonstrated that when micrometeorological data within the canopy was applied alongside the data measured above the canopy, the SM led to better agreement with the lysimeter measurements. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evapotranspiration and Plant Irrigation Strategies)

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14 pages, 1416 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Maize Evapotranspiration Estimation Using Penman-Monteith Equation and Modeling the Bulk Canopy Resistance

by Nora Meraz-Maldonado and Héctor Flores-Magdaleno

Water 2019, 11(12), 2650; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11122650 - 15 Dec 2019

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3329

Abstract

Some techniques, such as the Katerji and Perrier approach, estimate the bulk canopy resistance (r_c) as a function of meteorological variables and then calculate the hourly evapotranspiration using the Penman–Monteith equation, so that traditional crop coefficients are not needed. As far as we know, there are no published studies regarding using this method for a maize crop. The objective of this study was to calibrate and validate the canopy resistance for an irrigated continuous maize crop in the Midwestern United States (US). In addition, we determined the effect of derivation year, bowen ratio, and the extent of canopy. In this study we derive empirical coefficients necessary to estimate r_c for maize, five years (2001–2005) were considered. A split-sample approach was taken, in which each year’s data was taken as a potential calibration data set and validation was accomplished while using the other four years of data. We grouped the data by green leaf area index (GLAI) and the Bowen ratio (β) by parsing the data into a 3 × 3 grouping: LAI (≥2, ≥3, and ≥4) and |β| (≤0.1, ≤0.2, and ≤0.3). The best fit data indicated reasonably good results for all nine groupings, so that the calibration coefficients derived for the conditions LAI ≥ 2 and |β| ≤ 0.3 were taken in light of the longer span associated with LAI ≥ 2 and the larger number of hours. For the calibrations in this subgroup, the results indicate that the annual empirical coefficients for r_c are nearly the same and equally effective, regardless of the year used for calibration. Our validation included all the daytime hours regardless of β. Thus, it was concluded that the calibration at our site was independent of the derivation year. Knowledge of the Bowen ratio was useful in calibration, but accurate ET estimates (validation) can be obtained without knowledge of the Bowen ratio. Validation resulted in hourly ET estimates for irrigated maize that explained 83% to 86% of the variation in measured ET with an accuracy of ± 0.2 mm. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evapotranspiration and Plant Irrigation Strategies)

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15 pages, 2660 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Measuring and Modelling Soil Evaporation in an Irrigated Olive Orchard to Improve Water Management

by Luca Tezza, Melanie Häusler, Nuno Conceição and Maria Isabel Ferreira

Water 2019, 11(12), 2529; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11122529 - 29 Nov 2019

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3123

Abstract

The aim of this study was to estimate soil evaporation (Es) in an intensive olive orchard. Measurements of Es were performed for 19 days using microlysimeters, during summers 2010, 2011 and 2012 in southeast Portugal. In order to relate each area type to radiation transmissivity, ground cover measurements were performed over the years. These data were used to calibrate and validate an empirical model for Es estimation. Measured daily average Es was 0.55 ± 0.14 mm; the model estimated 0.53 ± 0.18 mm for the same days, with a determination coefficient of 0.94. This corresponds to 9% of the reference evapotranspiration, representing well the overall values estimated for the summer, except for days after rain. Regarding the wet area, measured Es for the validation data set was 2.42 L/(m² of wet area), the estimated was 2.49 L/(m² of wet area). Measured average Es in dry area (validation data set) was 0.42 L/(m² of dry area), estimated Es was 0.43 L/(m² of dry area). The large exposed dry area had a significant contribution to evaporation. On average, estimated Es during a typical Mediterranean summer was 10% of reference evapotranspiration, representing 30% of transpiration and 23% of evapotranspiration. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evapotranspiration and Plant Irrigation Strategies)

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16 pages, 2458 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of the Effect of Irrigation on Biometric Growth, Physiological Response, and Essential Oil of Mentha spicata (L.)

by Stefano Marino, Uzair Ahmad, Maria Isabel Ferreira and Arturo Alvino

Water 2019, 11(11), 2264; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11112264 - 28 Oct 2019

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 4794

Abstract

A field experiment was performed on spearmint (Mentha spicata L.) under different irrigation regimes in a hilly area of Southern Italy. Objectives of the study include evaluating the physiological and biometrical response of mint from plant establishment up to its complete maturation, as well as the yield composition in essential oil at two different dates. Increasing levels of water stress affected later developing leaves and plant’s water status and net photosynthesis (from the beginning of stress (DAT 63), while affecting negatively the biometric response very soon and significantly from 35 DAT. Photosynthesis limitation played a critical role from DAT 53 on, namely later, in the harvest period (DAT 35–70). Under severe water stress, crop restricted water losses by modulating stomatal closure and, at harvest, showing lowered mesophyll conductance. Irrigation treatments did not affect the concentration of organic compounds, while the yield of essential oils was negatively affected by water stress due to reduced crop growth, in terms of total and leaf biomass, leaf area index (LAI) and crop height. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evapotranspiration and Plant Irrigation Strategies)

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19 pages, 4345 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Performance of Satellite-Based Actual Evapotranspiration Products and the Assessment of Irrigation Efficiency in Egypt

by Saher Ayyad, Islam S. Al Zayed, Van Tran Thi Ha and Lars Ribbe

Water 2019, 11(9), 1913; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11091913 - 14 Sep 2019

Cited by 29 | Viewed by 9297

Abstract

Monitoring of crop water consumption, also known as actual evapotranspiration (ETa), is crucial for the prudent use of limited freshwater resources. Remote-sensing-based algorithms have become a popular approach for providing spatio-temporal information on ETa. Satellite-based ETa products are widely available. However, identifying an adequate product remains a challenge due to validation data scarcity. This study developed an assessment process to identify superior ETa products in agricultural areas in Egypt. The land cover product (MCD12Q1) from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) was evaluated and used to detect agricultural areas. The performances of three ETa products, namely: Earth Engine Evapotranspiration Flux (EEFlux), USGS-FEWS NET SSEBop ETa monthly product, and MODIS ETa monthly product (MOD16A2), were evaluated. The ETa values of these products were compared to previous ETa observations and evaluated using the integrated Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (iNDVI) on a seasonal and annual basis. Finally, the irrigation efficiency throughout Egypt was calculated based on the annual Relative Water Supply (RWS) index. Results reveal that the SSEBop monthly product has the best performance in Egypt, followed by the MOD16A2. The EEFlux overestimated ETa values by 36%. RWS had a range of 0.96–1.47, indicating high irrigation efficiency. The findings reported herein can assist in improving irrigation water management in Egypt and the Nile Basin. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evapotranspiration and Plant Irrigation Strategies)

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Graphical abstract

16 pages, 3773 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Capability of Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy to Predict Soil Water Retention and Related Soil Properties in an Irrigated Lowland District of Southern Italy

by Antonio Pasquale Leone, Guido Leone, Natalia Leone, Ciro Galeone, Eleonora Grilli, Nadia Orefice and Valeria Ancona

Water 2019, 11(8), 1712; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11081712 - 17 Aug 2019

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4476

Abstract

In this study, we examined the potential of vis-NIR reflectance spectroscopy, coupled with partial least squares regression (PLSR) analysis, for the evaluation and prediction of soil water retention at field capacity (FC) and permanent wilting point (PWP) and related basic soil properties [organic carbon (OC), sand, silt, and clay contents] in an agricultural irrigated land of southern Italy. Soil properties were determined in the laboratory with reference to the Italian Official Methods for Soil Analysis. Vis-NIR reflectance spectra were measured in the laboratory, using a high-resolution spectroradiometer. All soil variables, with the exception of silt, evidently affected some specific spectral features. Multivariate calibrations were performed to predict the soil properties from reflectance spectra. PLSR was used to calibrate the spectral data using two-thirds of samples for calibration and one-third for validation. Spectroscopic data were pre-processed [multiplicative scatter correction (MSC), standard normal variance (SNV), wavelet detrending (WD), first and second derivative transformation, and filtering] prior to multivariate calibration. The results revealed very good models (2.0 < RPD < 2.5) for the prediction of FC, PWP and sand, and excellent (RPD > 2.5) models for the prediction of clay and OC, whereas a poor (RPD < 1.4) prediction model was obtained for silt. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evapotranspiration and Plant Irrigation Strategies)

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19 pages, 15960 KiB

Open AccessArticle

METRIC and WaPOR Estimates of Evapotranspiration over the Lake Urmia Basin: Comparative Analysis and Composite Assessment

by Mostafa Javadian, Ali Behrangi, Mohsen Gholizadeh and Masoud Tajrishy

Water 2019, 11(8), 1647; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11081647 - 9 Aug 2019

Cited by 34 | Viewed by 6610

Abstract

Evapotranspiration is one of the main components of water and energy balance. In this study, we compare two ET products, suitable for regional analysis at high spatial resolution: The recent WaPOR product developed by FAO and METRIC algorithm. WaPOR is based on ETLook, which is a two-source model and relies on microwave images. WaPOR is unique as it has no limitation under cloudy days, but METRIC is limited by clouds. METRIC and WaPOR are more sensitive to land surface temperature and soil moisture, respectively. Using two years (2010 and 2014) of data over Lake Urmia basin, we show that in most areas, ET from METRIC is higher than WaPOR and the difference has an ascending trend with the elevation. The ET of lysimeter station is fairly consistent with METRIC based on a single observation. Our analysis using NDVI and land use maps suggests that the histogram of ET from WaPOR might be more realistic than METRIC, but not its amount. The fraction of ET to precipitation in rainfed agriculture areas shows that WaPOR is more accurate than METRIC, mainly because in the absence of other water resources such as ground water annual ET cannot exceed annual precipitation. In contrast, METRIC produces a more realistic estimate than WaPOR over irrigated farms. The results suggest that the two products can complement each other. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evapotranspiration and Plant Irrigation Strategies)

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15 pages, 2548 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaporation and Soil Surface Resistance of the Water Storage Pit Irrigation Trees in the Loess Plateau

by Wei Meng, Xihuan Sun, Juanjuan Ma, Xianghong Guo and Lijian Zheng

Water 2019, 11(4), 648; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11040648 - 28 Mar 2019

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3397

Abstract

As an important step for formulating a water-saving agricultural strategy, it is essential to make quantitative calculations for orchard soil evaporation and confirm its inner mechanism, so as to reduce ineffective water consumption and improve the utilization efficiency of water resources. To reveal the effect of water storage pits under water storage pit irrigation conditions in orchard soil evaporation, micro-lysimeters were used to measure the soil evaporation in two different forms (soil surface evaporation and pit wall evaporation) under diverse irrigation systems using water storage pit irrigation in the apple growth period of 2018. To calculate the orchard soil evaporation of water storage pit irrigation, the pit irrigation coefficient was introduced and a model was constructed. To illustrate the inner mechanism of orchard soil evaporation, the soil surface resistance under water storage pit irrigation conditions was analyzed and calculated quantitatively. The results show that: (1) introducing the pit irrigation coefficient can boost the calculation precision of the orchard soil evaporation under water storage pit irrigation conditions; (2) when applying the soil evaporation of the water storage pit irrigation model for calculation of the orchard soil evaporation,

R^{2}

can reach 0.92; and (3) the mechanisms of the two orchard soil evaporation forms under water storage pit irrigation are very different. When soil surface evaporation and pit wall evaporation were calculated by the soil surface resistance of water storage pit irrigation model,

R^{2}

values were 0.95 and 0.96, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evapotranspiration and Plant Irrigation Strategies)

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