Responses of canopy transpiration and canopy conductance of peach (Prunus persica) trees to alternate partial root zone drip irrigation

Daozhi Gong, Shaozhong Kang*, Jianhua Zhang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We investigated canopy transpiration and canopy conductance of peach trees under three irrigation patterns: fixed 1/2 partial root zone drip irrigation (FPRDI), alternate 1/2 partial root zone drip irrigation (APRDI) and full root zone drip irrigation (FDI). Canopy transpiration was measured using heat pulse sensors, and canopy conductance was calculated using the Jarvis model and the inversion of the Penman-Monteith equation. Results showed that the transpiration rate and canopy conductance in FPRDI and APRDI were smaller than those in FDI. More significantly, the total irrigation amount was greatly reduced, by 34.7% and 39.6%, respectively for APRDI and FPRDI in the PRDI (partial root zone drip irrigation) treatment period. The daily transpiration was linearly related to the reference evapotranspiration in the three treatments, but daily transpiration of FDI is more than that of APRDI and FPRDI under the same evaporation demand, suggesting a restriction of transpiration water loss in the APRDI and FPRDI trees. FDI needed a higher soil water content to carry the same amount of transpiration as the APRDI and FPRDI trees, suggesting the hydraulic conductance of roots of APRDI and FPRDI trees was enhanced, and the roots had a greater water uptake than in FDI when the average soil water content in the root zone was the same. By a comparison between the transpiration rates predicted by the Penman-Monteith equation and the measured canopy transpiration rates for 60 days during the experimental period, an excellent correlation along the 1:1 line was found for all the treatments (R2 > 0.80), proving the reliability of the methodology.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2575-2590
Number of pages16
JournalHydrological Processes
Volume19
Issue number13
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Aug 2005

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Water Science and Technology

User-Defined Keywords

  • Canopy conductance
  • Partial root zone irrigation
  • Peach (Prunus persica)
  • Sap flow
  • Soil water content
  • Transpiration rate

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