Crop coefficient approaches based on fixed estimates of leaf resistance are not appropriate for estimating water use of citrus

The estimation of crop water use is critical for accurate irrigation scheduling and water licenses. However, the direct measurement of crop water use is too expensive and time-consuming to be performed under all possible conditions, which necessitates the use of water use models. The FAO-56 procedur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Irrigation science 2015-03, Vol.33 (2), p.153-166
Main Authors: Taylor, N. J., Mahohoma, W., Vahrmeijer, J. T., Gush, M. B., Allen, R. G., Annandale, J. G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Agriculture
Aquatic Pollution
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Citrus
Citrus fruits
Climate Change
Coefficients
Crops
Environment
Estimates
Estimating
Evapotranspiration
Fruits
Irrigation
Irrigation scheduling
Irrigation water
Leaves
Life Sciences
Orchards
Original Paper
Studies
Sustainable Development
Transpiration
Waste Water Technology
Water Industry/Water Technologies
Water Management
Water Pollution Control
Water use
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Summary:The estimation of crop water use is critical for accurate irrigation scheduling and water licenses. However, the direct measurement of crop water use is too expensive and time-consuming to be performed under all possible conditions, which necessitates the use of water use models. The FAO-56 procedure is a simple, convenient and reproducible method, but as canopy cover and height vary greatly among different orchards, crop coefficients may not be readily transferrable from one orchard to another. Allen and Pereira (Irrig Sci 28:17–34, 2009 ) therefore incorporated a procedure into the FAO-56 approach which estimates crop coefficients based on a physical description of the vegetation and an adjustment for relative crop stomatal control over transpiration. Transpiration crop coefficients derived using this procedure and fixed values for citrus did not provide good estimates of water use in three citrus orchards. However, when mean monthly leaf resistance was taken into account, good agreement was found with measured values. A relationship between monthly reference evapotranspiration and mean leaf resistance provided a means of estimating mean leaf resistance which estimated transpiration crop coefficients with a reasonable degree of accuracy. The use of a dynamic estimate of mean leaf resistance therefore provided reasonable estimates of transpiration in citrus.
ISSN:0342-7188
1432-1319
DOI:10.1007/s00271-014-0455-z