Search

Climate change and intensive agriculture are responsible for the increasing frequency and intensity of abiotic stresses generating conditions of water scarcity. Currently, there is the need to select and release, in a short time, plants adaptable to the current and future environmental conditions and resistant to biotic and/or abiotic stress. This study presents the design and validation of a High-Throughput Screening (HTS) system for the continuous and simultaneous monitoring of the plant stress response to drought in a semi-controlled environment.Structurally, the HTS-system is formed by three hardware segments to detect with high-frequency the agrometeorological variables (i.e., atmometry), the weights (i.e., gravimetry), and the soil water content (SWC) (i.e., time domain reflectometry, TDR) of sixteen pots in which the medicinal crop Salvia officinalis L (sage) was grown. Two irrigation treatments, one based on full irrigation and the second on soil water deficit conditions, were applied following a feedback control irrigation scheduling protocol, and an automated micro-irrigation system was designed to manage them.The system was able to model the sage water stress function following the root water uptake (RWU) macroscopic approach. The threshold of soil water status below which crop water stress occurred was also identified. The gravimetric-based daily evapotranspiration (ETc act) and the time domain reflectometry (TDR) -based RWU rates showed a high correlation, which allowed validating the RWU indicators based on soil moisture sensors to estimate the ETc act fluxes.Keywords. Agro-hydrological modelling, high-throughput systems; root water uptake; sage; water stress function

The EM-38 is a Handheld Electrical Magnetic Induction (EMI) device, non-invasive and commonly used for monitoring salinity, mapping bulk soil properties, and evaluating soil nutrient status. The measured data is an electrical conductivity, [mS/m], which was referred to a representative soil volume of 1.0-1.5 m depth and 2.0 m width.The Data AcQuisition (DAQ) system for EM-38 (Geonics Inc.) conductivity meter, used for recording the spatial variability of the soil bulk electrical conductivity (EC), is expensive, according to the proprietary software, and do not provide detailed, modifiable circuit schematics.To address these issues, we developed an easy-to-use, modifiable, and inexpensive data acquisition (DAQ) system for EC data recording and spatializing. In particular, this work investigates the feasibility of using a low-cost open-source DAQ system to be installed on an EM-38 conductivity meter (Geonics Inc.). This DAQ system is based on Raspberry Pi and allows collecting speed and position of the EM-38 device by carrying it on a specific designed sled system.The EM-38 data (± 200mV) were acquired by A/D converter 24 bit and GPS data ($GPGGA, $GPRMC [NMEA 0183]) were obtained by serial input RS232. The Data logger (Raspberry Pi 4) stored the acquired data and transferred it to the server using an internet connection (Router 4G). The control Firmware has been written in Python language. To ensure the accuracy and reliability of the collected data, the system has been evaluated and tested in well-known open-filed (CIRAAA-a reserch center of the University of Pisa), where the spatial variability of the main soil physical properties (i.e. soil texture, organic matter, electrical conductivity) are known.The performance has been evaluated by comparing the data string with the one generated by a professional DAQ system. The latter includes a CR1000 data logger (Campbell Scientific) to control and store the EC data and integrats a GPS receiver (GPS16X-HVS, Garmin Inc.) which provides the position, velocity, and timing information.First results allowed to approve the possibility to extract the analogical signal from the device, which is strongly responsive to the variation of the physical properties of the soil environment. Moreover, the device is able to estimate accurately the spatial patterns of the investigated soil physical properties. Keywords: Precision farming, Zoning, EMI sensors, soil bulk electrical conductivity, open source DAQ

The aim was the evaluation of the biochemical and physiological responses of green- (GP) and red-leafed (RP) Prunus cerasifera mature leaves to 20 d of polyethylene glycol (PEG 6000)-induced water stress in order to elucidate a possible ameliorative role exerted by anthocyanins. At 10 d, the anthocyanin content remained unchanged in RP water-stressed leaves. Photosynthetic rate was lower in GP than that of RP (83.4 vs. 76.5%, respectively), paralleled by a higher degree of photoinhibition (Fv/Fm) in GP leaves. Leaves of GP accounted for higher content of soluble sugars at 10 d, when RP only showed a slight sucrose increase. At 20 d of stress, both morphs recovered their Fv/Fm values, suggesting the ability of both genotypes to adjust their photosynthetic metabolism under conditions of water stress. In conclusion, besides the sunscreen role served by anthocyanins, the carbon sink by these flavonoids might have further prevented sugar accumulation and the consequent sugar-promoted feedback regulation of photosynthesis in drought-stressed red leaves.

In the last two decades, research on water resource monitoring and management has mainly been aimed at reducing irrigation water volume and energy consumption. At the same time, the effects of climate change and agricultural policies have also been major research interests. Therefore, there is an interest in focusing on the assessment of irrigation performance to improve water management and to increase the sustainability of irrigated agricultural territories. Recent advances in optoelectronics, mechatronics, communication, and information technologies have allowed for the implementation of low cost, easy to operate, and virtual free maintenance of data acquisition systems to be used in soil-crop water status monitoring, as well as in smart irrigation systems. Agro-hydrological models have been recognized as an economic and simple tool to quantify crop water requirements in the decisionmaking processes for both farm and basin scales. They can simulate the mass and/or energy exchange processes in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum under different spatial and temporal scales. In combination with new technologies such as sensors and remote sensing, these models are promising techniques that have accelerated spatial data collection substantially. Remote sensing and wireless sensor networks can cover scales from a single leaf to complete irrigation systems and can create data sets for large numbers of agricultural families and farming conditions. Hence, the agro-hydrological sensor-model based approach must be properly chosen and calibrated to increase its use on larger commercial farms, even using remote sensing data. This Special Issue consists of a collection of seven papers that cover a broad range of advances on modelling and partitioning evapotranspiration, modelling soil water and salt content, and modelling irrigation systems, with the aim to increase the sustainability of irrigation derived from the adoption of monitoring and optimum management practices

Con il documento "Le prospettive della digitalizzazione per lo sviluppo sostenibile del territorio rurale" il Comitato Consultivo dei Georgofili sulla digitalizzazione in agricoltura, presieduto da Gianluca Brunori di PAGE, presenta una serie di proposte a cui l'Accademia si impegnerà a dare seguito attraverso specifiche iniziative. Con questo documento, il Comitato consultivo sulla digitalizzazione agricola dell’Accademia dei Georgofili intende proporre un quadro concettuale, alcuni elementi di evidenza empirica e le prime riflessioni sulle prospettive per la digitalizzazione in agricoltura e nelle aree rurali. I contenuti del documento sono orientati agli obiettivi delle politiche europee (Council of the European Union, 2020) e nazionali (Dipartimento per le Politiche Europee, 2021), i quali mostrano una forte attenzione nei confronti dei processi di trasformazione digitale. Il documento sottolinea l'importanza di coordinare gli interventi relativi alla digitalizzazione intorno agli obiettivi dello sviluppo sostenibili e di adottare un approccio sensibile alla diversità dei territori rurali e delle caratteristiche delle imprese agricole attraverso percorsi partecipativi.&nbsp

In this work, we propose to transfer a soil moisture-based wireless sensor network (SM-WSN) to support the reduction of irrigation water consume in the Tuscany region (Italy). The SM-WSN was designed and validated in a commercial pear orchard during two growing seasons (2019-2020) in which the smart irrigation strategy was implemented and applied.Initially, the micro irrigation system was assessed based on its performance in terms of water distribution uniformity (DU) evaluated with field measurements of emitter flow rates. Then, a zoning analysis was carried out to divide the orchard into homogeneous areas according to the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) detected with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and GIS tools. These areas were used to define the topology of the SM-WSN and to investigate how water distribution uniformity can affect the vigour of the trees. A total of 6 “drill & drop” capacitance probes (Sentek Pty Ltd, Stepney, Australia) were installed in the field, after following a simplified laboratory calibration procedure. The hardware and the smartphone-based application, AgriNET, used to download from remote the sensors’ readings were provided by Tuctronics (Walla Walla, Washington, USA).Assuming that the zoning outcome was only associated with the soil spatial variability, the effect of DU on the vigour of the trees has been identified. Moreover, unlike the ordinary irrigation scheduling applied in the farm, the smart system allowed maintaining the soil water content within a pre-defined optimal range, in which the upper and lower limits corresponded respectively to the soil field capacity and the threshold below which water stress occurs. Based on the smart irrigation management, a water-saving up to 50% of the total water supplied with ordinary scheduling was achieved during both the investigated growing seasons. Moreover, the quality of the productions (i.e °Brix, fruit size and firmness) were in line with the standard required by the farmer. The adoption of the new technology, aiming at identifying the most appropriate irrigation management, has the potential to generate positive economic returns and to reduce the environmental impacts.

The SIMDualKc model was applied to evaluate the crop water use and the crop coefficient (Kc) of an irrigated olive grove (Olea europaea L.) located in Sicily, Italy, using experimental data collected from two crop seasons. The model applies the FAO56 dual Kc approach to compute the actual crop evapotranspiration (ETc act) and its components, i.e., the actual tree transpiration (Tc act), obtained through the basal crop coefficient (Kcb), and soil evaporation according to an evaporation coefficient (Ke). Model calibration was performed by minimizing the difference between the predicted Tc act and the observed daily tree transpiration measured with sap flow instrumentation (TSF field) acquired in 2009. The validation was performed using the independent data set of sap flow measurements from 2011. The calibrated Kcb was equal to 0.30 for the initial and non-growing season stages, 0.42 for the mid-season, and 0.37 for the end season. For both seasons, the goodness-of-fit indicators relative to comparing TSF field with the simulated Tc act resulted in root mean square errors (RMSE) lower than 0.27 mm d−1 and a slope of the linear regression close to 1.0 (0.94 ≤ b0 ≤ 1.00). The olive grove water balance simulated with SIMDualKc produced a ratio between soil evaporation (Es) and ETc act that averaged 39%. The ratio between actual (ETc act) and potential crop evapotranspiration (ETc) varied from 84% to about 99% in the mid-season, indicating that the values of ETc act are close to ETc, i.e., the adopted deficit irrigation led to limited water stress. The results confirm the suitability of the SIMDualKc model to apply the FAO56 dual Kc approach to tree crops, thus assessing the water use of olives and supporting the development of appropriate irrigation management tools that are usable by farmers. A different way to estimate Kcb is based on the approach suggested in 2009 by Allen and Pereira (A&amp, P), which involves the measured fraction of ground covered (shaded) by the crop and the height of the trees. Its application to the studied grove produced the mid-season Kcb values ranging from 0.40–0.45 and end-season Kcb values ranging from 0.35–0.40. The comparison between the A&amp, P-computed Tc act A&amp, P and TSF field shows RMSE values ranging from 0.27 to 0.43 mm d−1, which demonstrates the adequacy of the latter approach for parameterizing water balance models and for irrigation scheduling decision making.

New technologies in agriculture present the opportunity to create intuitive and user-friendly decision support systems, and to improve the productivity of the systems requiring water and energy. In the last few years, the adoption of these technologies have been increasing through third mission activities, and the collaboration between researchers, consultants, agri-food managers and farmers.The general objective of the proposed dissemination activity carried out by the AgrHySMo laboratory of the University of Pisa, was to transfer a soil moisture-based wireless sensor network (SM-WSN) to a commercial pear orchard named Illuminati Frutta (Arezzo, Italy), for the feedback control of irrigation.The plan of the third mission activity was designed by the following phases: i) the team evaluated the hydraulic performance and management of the irrigation system in the pear orchard; ii) the use of proximal sensing provided the NDVI for the biophysical characterization of the crop in a pilot area extended thirteen ha; iii) the open-source QGIS suite program was used to elaborate the collected images, to assess a zoning analysis, and to discretize homogeneous areas inside the orchard. These zoning maps were used to define the topology of the SM-WSN.The orchard was characterized by four homogeneous zones, inside which at least one sensor of soil water content (FDR Drill and Drop probe, Sentek Inc.) was installed. A total of 6 probes were installed in the pilot area. The hardware and the smartphone of the dedicated sensor network applications, AgriNET, were provided by Tuctronics (Walla Walla, Washington, USA). The measurements of volumetric soil water contents are sent to a platform using the MODBUS RTU protocol interfaced with a communication board and then delivered, using the cellular 3G data network, to a MySQL database operated by AgriNET/Tuctronics accessible from the web. According to the ordinary scheduling of irrigation, the expert system allowed the farmer to maintain the soil water content within a pre-defined optimal range, which upper limit corresponds to the soil field capacity and the lower is the threshold below which water stress occurs. During the first experimental growing season, by considering the results obtained in the pilot plot, compared with the ordinary irrigation scheduling the farmer saved up to 35% of the water and energy supply. In the future, the proposed feedback control of irrigation protocol will be extended to the entire farm. Thus, the adoption of this new technology aimed at identifying the most appropriate irrigation management, have the potential to generate positive economic returns and to reduce the environmental impacts.

The final stage of leaf ontogenesis is represented by senescence, a highly regulated process driven by a sequential cellular breakdown involving, as the first step, chloroplast dismantling with consequent reduction of photosynthetic efficiency. Different processes, such as pigment accumulation, could protect the vulnerable photosynthetic apparatus of senescent leaves. Although several studies have produced transcriptomic data on foliar senescence, just few works have attempted to explain differences in red and green leaves throughout ontogenesis. In this work, a transcriptomic approach was used on green and red leaves of Prunus cerasifera to unveil molecular differences from leaf maturity to senescence. Our analysis revealed a higher gene regulation in red leaves compared to green ones, during leaf transition. Most of the observed DEGs were shared and involved in transcription factor activities, senescing processes and cell wall remodelling. Significant differences were detected in cellular functions: genes related to photosystem I and II were highly down-regulated in the green genotype, whereas transcripts involved in flavonoid biosynthesis, such as UDP glucose-flavonoid-3-O-glucosyltransferase (UFGT) were exclusively up-regulated in red leaves. In addition, cellular functions involved in stress response (glutathione-S-transferase, Pathogen-Related) and sugar metabolism, such as three threalose-6-phosphate synthases, were activated in senescent red leaves. In conclusion, data suggests that P. cerasifera red genotypes can regulate a set of genes and molecular mechanisms that cope with senescence, promoting more advantages during leaf ontogenesis than compared to the green ones.

This study aimed to develop a new model, valid for soil with and without expandable characters, to estimate volumetric soil water content (&theta, ) from readings of scaled frequency (SF) acquired with the Diviner 2000&reg, sensor. The analysis was carried out on six soils collected in western Sicily, sieved at 5 mm, and repacked to obtain the maximum and minimum bulk density (&rho, b). During an air-drying process SF values, the corresponding gravimetric soil water content (U) and &rho, b were monitored. In shrinking/swelling clay soils, due to the contraction process, the variation of dielectric permittivity was affected by the combination of the mutual proportions between the water volumes and the air present in the soil. Thus, to account for the changes of &rho, b with U, the proposed model assumed &theta, as the dependent variable being SF and &rho, b the independent variables, then the model&rsquo, s parameters were estimated based on the sand and clay fractions. The model validation was finally carried out based on data acquired in undisturbed monoliths sampled in the same areas. The estimated &theta, &theta, estim, was generally close to the corresponding measured, &theta, meas, with Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE) generally lower than 0.049 cm3 cm&minus, 3, quite low Mean Bias Errors (MBE), ranging between &minus, 0.028 and 0.045 cm3 cm&minus, 3, and always positive Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency index (NSE), confirming the good performance of the model.

Water supplies have been decreasing in several semi-arid regions, and it is therefore necessary to adopt irrigation strategies aimed at maximizing water use efficiency. In this paper, the effects of saline and deficit irrigation on water use efficiency and on potato crop response, based on observations of soil and plant water status, were investigated. Experiments were carried out in Central Tunisia, by monitoring potato crop growth during two seasons in four distinct treatments (T1&ndash, T4), represented by two different irrigation doses and two water qualities. For irrigation scheduling purposes, thresholds of soil matric potential, soil water content and Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) were identified with the aim to quantify the effects of water and/or salinity stress on the achievable yield. Experiments allowed verifying that crop yield is strongly affected by the seasonal amount and quality of applied water. Despite differences of crop yield between treatments T2, T3 and T4 not being statistically significant (P &lt, 0.05), crop yield varied between 26.3 t/ha (T3 in 2015) to 16.3 t/ha (T4 in 2015). However, crop yield decline of 17.0 t/ha and 12.0 t/ha per each 100 mm decrease of applied water were observed under the application of water electrical conductivity of 1.6 dS/m and 4.1 dS/m respectively. On the other hand, an increase of 1.0 dS/m in water electrical conductivity caused a yield decline rate of about 10%. The results achieved showed that under the semi-arid climate of Tunisia, potato crop irrigation should be scheduled to avoid water deficit, however, the possibility to reduce water supply can be envisaged when water availability is limited, but with the awareness to accept the shortage of production. Finally, when saline water is the only source available to the farm, it is necessary to avoid the reduction of irrigation doses, to prevent excessive salt accumulation in the root zone with unavoidable effects on crop yield.

The objective of this paper was to assess the performance of Hydrus-2D model to simulate the effects of different on-farm irrigation strategies applied on potato crop. The ability of the model to simulate the stress coefficient (Ks), obtained as the ratio between actual and maximum transpiration, and to define the productive function of potato crop under the semi-arid conditions of central Tunisia were also evaluated. Experiments were carried out on potato crop under full (FI) and deficit irrigation (DI) and two different water qualities supplied by means of a subsurface drip irrigation system. Results evidenced that the model, despite some discrepancies locally observed, can fairly accurately predict soil water contents and electrical conductivity around buried emitters. Furthermore, under water and salt stress conditions, &ldquo, measured&rdquo, Ks, based on crop water stress index (CWSI) obtained on thermal images, resulted in a good correlation with the corresponding estimated by the model (R2 = 0.8). The database collected during the three growth seasons also allowed the definition of the crop productive function represented by a linear relationship between the relative yield loss and Ks. This function represents a useful guidelines for the sustainable use of irrigation water in countries characterized by a semi-arid climate and a limited availability of water for irrigation.

The experiments were conducted in a fully-productive olive orchard (cv. Frantoio) at the experimental farm of University of Pisa at Venturina (Italy) in 2015 to assess the ability of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with RGB-NIR cameras to estimate leaf area index (LAI), tree height, canopy diameter and canopy volume of olive trees that were either irrigated or rainfed. Irrigated trees received water 4–5 days a week (1348 m3 ha-1), whereas the rainfed ones received a single irrigation of 19 m3 ha-1 to relieve the extreme stress. The flight altitude was 70 m above ground level (AGL), except for one flight (50 m AGL). The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was calculated by means of the map algebra technique. Canopy volume, canopy height and diameter were obtained from the digital surface model (DSM) obtained through automatic aerial triangulation, bundle block adjustment and camera calibration methods. The NDVI estimated on the day of the year (DOY) 130 was linearly correlated with both LAI and leaf chlorophyll measured on the same date (R2 = 0.78 and 0.80, respectively). The correlation between the on ground measured canopy volumes and the ones by the UAV-RGB camera techniques yielded an R2 of 0.71–0.86. The monthly canopy volume increment estimated from UAV surveys between (DOY) 130 and 244 was highly correlated with the daily water stress integral of rainfed trees (R2 = 0.99). The effect of water stress on the seasonal pattern of canopy growth was detected by these techniques in correspondence of the maximum level of stress experienced by the rainfed trees. The highest level of accuracy (RMSE = 0.16 m) in canopy height estimation was obtained when the flight altitude was 50 m AGL, yielding an R2 value of 0.87 and an almost 1:1 ratio of measured versus estimated canopy height., Research supported by UNAPROL-Italy projects Reg. EU no. 867/2008.

The present study reviews the research on the FAO56 crop coefficients of fruit trees and vines performed over the past twenty years. The main objective was to update information and extend tabulated single (K c ) and basal (K cb ) standard crop coefficients. The selection and analysis of the literature for this review have been done to consider only studies that adhere to FAO56 method, computing the reference ET with the FAO Penman–Monteith​ ET o equation and field measuring crop ET with proved accuracy. The crops considered refer to vine fruit crops, berries and hops, temperate climate evergreen fruit trees, temperate climate deciduous fruit trees and, tropical and subtropical fruit crops. Papers satisfying the conditions expressed above, and that studied the crops under pristine or appropriate eustress conditions, were selected to provide for standard K c and K cb data. Preference was given to studies reporting on the fraction of ground cover (f c ), crop height (h), planting density, crop age and adopted training systems. The K c and K cb values obtained from the selected literature generally show coherence relative to the crop biophysical characteristics and reflect those characteristics, mainly f c , h and training systems. The ranges of reported K c and K cb values were grouped according to crop density, particularly f c and h, and were compared with FAO56 (Allen et al., 1998) previously tabulated K c and K cb values, as well as by Allen and Pereira (2009) and Jensen and Allen (2016), which lead to define update indicative standard K c and K cb values. These values are aimed for use in crop water requirement computations and modeling for irrigation planning and scheduling, thus also aimed at supporting improved water use and saving in orchards and vines.

[EN] The knowledge of the crop response to soil water deficit is essential to predict the actual crop water requirements under limited soil water conditions. The mathematical schematization of the crop response under RDI can allow identifying the exact irrigation timing. The threshold of soil water status below which crop transpiration decreases represents a key parameter for the water stress functions. The main objective of this paper was to investigate the effects of several RDI treatments, applied during the three stages of fruit growth, on soil-plant-water relations of drip-irrigated mandarin trees. Experiments were carried out in seven irrigation treatments: a control, irrigated at 125% of potential evapotranspiration measured in weighting lysimeters, ETlys, during the whole year, and six RDI treatments in which 25% and 50% of ETlys were applied during each of the three stages of fruit growth. The critical threshold of soil water status expressed in terms of soil water depletion below which predawn (PLWP) and midday (MSWP) leaf water potential is affected by decreasing soil water content, were identified. The dependency of crop water status from the climate forcing, occurring under soil water contents higher than the critical threshold was also demonstrated. Moreover, a strong relationship between water stress integral ( ) evaluated during the three stages of fruit growth, and the corresponding amount of water applied (irrigation and precipitation) was observed after normalizing the variables. The robust relationship between these two variables (R2 = 0.83) confirmed that the water stress integral represents a good indicator of the plant-water relationship and allows the prediction of the total irrigation depth to be applied to achieve a desired stress level during the fruit growth. Moreover, this relationship depends on the irrigation schedule adopted to regulate the deficit, which includes the irrigation variables, such as irrigation dose and its variability., The research was carried out in the frame of Progetto Organizzazioni di Produttori-Illuminati Frutta-Rallo (University of Pisa, 1048 Ministero delle Politiche Agricole e Forestali-Regione Toscana) and ATMOSMART-dimostratore tecnologico (University of Pisa).

Anthocyanic morphs are generally less efficient in terms of carbon gain, but, in turn, are more photoprotected than anthocyanin-less ones. To date, mature leaves of different morphs or leaves at different developmental stages within the same species have generally been compared, whereas there is a lack of knowledge regarding different stages of development of red vs. green leaves. Leaves (1-, 7-, and 13-week-old) of red- (RLP) and green-leafed (GLP) Prunus in terms of photosynthetic rate, carbon metabolism and photoprotective mechanisms were compared to test whether anthocyanin-equipped leaves perform better than anthocyanin-less leaves and whether photoprotection is the primary role of epidermally-located anthocyanins, using for the first time a recently-developed parameter of chlorophyll fluorescence (qPd). GLP leaves had a higher photosynthetic rate in 1- and 7-week-old leaves, but RLP leaves performed better at an early stage of senescence and had a longer leaf lifespan. Anthocyanins contributed to leaf photoprotection throughout the leaf development, but were tightly coordinated with carotenoids. Besides photoprotecting, we propose that epidermal anthocyanins may be principally synthetized to maintain an efficient carbon-sink strength in young and senescent leaves, thus extending the RLP leaf lifespan.

Accurate soil water status measurements across spatial and temporal scales are still a challenging task, specifically at intermediate spatial (0.1–10 ha) and temporal (minutes to days) scales. Consequently, a gap in knowledge limits our understanding of the reliability of the spatial measurements and its practical applicability in agricultural water management. This paper compares the cumulative EM38 (Geonics Ltd., Mississauga, ON, Canada) response collected by placing the sensor above ground with the corresponding soil water content obtained by integrating the values measured with an FDR (frequency domain reflectometry) sensor. In two field areas, characterized by different soil clay content, two Diviner 2000 access tubes (1.2 m) were installed and used to quantify the dimensionless fraction of transpirable soil water (FTSW). After the calibration, the work proposes the combined use of the FDR and electromagnetic induction (EMI) sensors to measure and map FTSW. A strong correlation (R2 = 0.86) between FTSW and EM38 bulk electrical conductivity was found. As a result, field changes of FTSW are due to the variability of soil water content and soil texture. As with the data acquired in the field, more structured patterns occurred after a wetting event, indicating the presence of subsurface flow or root water uptake paths. After assessing the relationship between the soil and crop water status, the FTSW domain includes a critical value, estimated around 0.38, below which a strong reduction of relative transpiration can be recognized.

The paper analyzes the performance of Hydrus-2D model to simulate the dynamic of soil water contents and transpiration fluxes in an olive orchard in which two different irrigation systems were used in 2011 and 2012. The relationship between measured midday stem water potential, MSWP, and simulated relative transpiration (ratio between simulated actual and maximum crop transpiration), Ks, was also identified with the aim to use the model for crop water status predictions. Finally, a scenario analysis was carried out for irrigation management purposes, by considering the level of crop water stress achieved in the different phases of the vegetative growth. The results evidenced that active roots (d

In this paper the suitability of the HYDRUS-2D model to simulate volumetric soil water content in the root zone of a potato crop under subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) is initially assessed on the basis of a field study. Then, considering that the crop is moderately sensitive to soil salinity, the model is tested to predict the salt distribution around a buried emitter, when two different water qualities (i.e. electrical conductivity of 1.0 and 4.0 dS m-1) are used during the growing season (treatments T1 and T2). Finally, the soil volume in which salt accumulates is distinguished by the model for the two treatments, for which the respective yields are not significantly different. The results showed that in the root zone, simulated and measured soil water content (SWC) are fairly close. HYDRUS-2D well enough predicts the average salt concentration in the soil and evaluates the dynamic of mass-conservative solutes around buried emitters. In both treatments, the salt concentration resulted in an increase in the wetting bulb, with a maximum located towards the edge of the wetting bulb and near the soil surface. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Resume Dans cet article, HYDRUS-2D a ete utilise pour l'estimation de la teneur en eau volumique dans la zone racinaire d'une culture de pomme de terre, irriguee au goutte a goutte enterre dans les conditions climatiques tunisiennes. Le modele a ete utilise pour l'estimation de la distribution du sel autour du goutteur enterre pour deux qualites differentes d'eau caracterisees par des conductivites electriques egales a 1.0 et 4.0 dS m-1, respectivement (traitements T1 et T2). Le modele permet de predire le volume du sol dans lequel les sels s'accumulent. Selon le test Student (t), les valeurs de la teneur en eau volumique du sol dans la zone racinaire qui sont prevues par HYDRUS-2D sont significativement correlees aux valeurs reelles mesurees en T1 et T2. Les resultats ont egalement mis en evidence que le modele est capable d'estimer la concentration moyenne de sel dans le sol et d'evaluer la dynamique des solutes a conservation de masse autour d'un goutteur enterre. En outre, dans les deux traitements, la concentration de sel augmente a l'interieur du bulbe, avec un maximum de concentration de sel situee dans le front d'humectation et a proximite de la surface du sol. La concentration de sel dans T2 est legerement plus elevee que dans T1. Cependant, la salinite de l'eau legerement elevee utilisee pour l'irrigation n'a pas affecte significativement la transpiration reelle de la pomme de terre et par consequent son rendement. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The knowledge of soil water content (SWC) dynamics in the upper soil layer is important for several hydrological processes. Due to the difficulty of assessing the spatial and temporal SWC dynamics in the field, some model-based approaches have been proposed during the last decade. The main objective of this work was to assess the performance of two approaches to estimate SWC in the upper soil layer under field conditions: the physically-based thermal inertia and the Hydrus model. Their validity was firstly assessed under controlled laboratory conditions. Thermal inertia was firstly validated in laboratory conditions using the transient line heat source (TLHS) method. Then, it was applied in situ to analyze the dynamics of soil thermal properties under two extreme conditions of soil-water status (well-watered and air-dry), using proximity remote-sensed data. The model performance was assessed using sensor-based measurements of soil water content acquired through frequency (FDR) and time domain reflectometry (TDR). During the laboratory experiment, the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) was 0.02 m3 m−3 for the Hydrus model and 0.05 m3 m−3 for the TLHS model approach. On the other hand, during the in situ experiment, the temporal variability of SWCs simulated by the Hydrus model and the corresponding values measured by the TDR method evidenced good agreement (RMSE ranging between 0.01 and 0.005 m3 m−3). Similarly, the average of the SWCs derived from the thermal diffusion model was fairly close to those estimated by Hydrus (spatially averaged RMSE ranging between 0.03 and 0.02 m3 m−3).

[EN] Micro-irrigation is considered one of the most efficient water distribution systems and allows increasing water use efficiency if coupled with effective water-saving irrigation management strategies as regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) or partial root-zone drying (PRD) techniques. However, application of these strategies makes it crucial the real-time monitoring of soil and crop water status, in order to identify appropriate irrigation scheduling parameters (irrigation timing and doses) and to prevent irreversible damage of plant system and/or crop yield reductions. Even if midday stem water potential (MSWP) is considered one of the most affordable indicator for direct determinations of crop water status, its measurement requires skilled operators, is destructive and time consuming, so that indirect and fast estimations are desirable. In this direction, agro-hydrological models can be considered an easy-to-use tool for indirect evaluations of soil and crop water status aimed to identify irrigation scheduling parameters even when micro-irrigation distribution systems and water saving management strategies are adopted. The paper, after examining the eco-physiological response of citrus orchards to soil water deficit, assessed the potential of FAO-56 agro-hydrological modelto identify the crop water stress under different irrigation management strategies. Experiments carried out during three years (2009–2011) allowed identifying the crop water stress response to soil water deficit conditions, also confirming the schematization proposed in FAO-56 paper for citrus orchards. Moreover, after evaluating the similarity between the measured MSWP with the simulated crop water stress coefficient, Ks, it was proved the fairly good performance of FAO-56 agrohydrological model to predict soil water content (RMSE = 0.04 m3 m−3), from one side, and the crop response to different irrigation management strategies, from the other. The obtained results evidenced that the crop water stress coefficient estimated by the model can be used as a suitable indicator to replace the tedious and time-consuming field measurements of MSWP. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved., Research was carried out in the frame of the PRIN 2010 projects, co-financed by Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Universita e della Ricerca (MIUR) and Universita degli Studi di Palermo. Authors wish to thank the Committee for International Relations Office (CORI) of University of Palermo to support the research cooperation with the Polytechnic University of Valencia.

The main objective of the work is to optimize drip installation depth for Eggplant crop irrigated with surface or subsurface drip irrigation systems to improve irrigation Water Use Effeciency (WUE), by means of field measurements and simulations carried out with Hydrus-2D model. Initially, a comparison between simulated Soil Water Contents (SWC) and the corresponding measured in two plots, in which laterals with coextruded emitters are laid on the soil surface (T0) and at 20 cm depth (T20), respectively. In order to choose the best position of the lateral, the results of different simulation run, carried out by choosing a deeper installation (T45) depth. Simulated SWC’s resulted fairly close to the corresponding measured at different distances from the emitter and therefore the model was able to predict SWC’s in the root zone with values of the Root Mean Square Error generally lower than 4%. This result is consequent to the appropriate schematization of the root distribution, as well as of the root water uptake. The values of WUE associated to the different examined installation depths tend to a very slight increase when the position of the lateral is situated on 20 cm and start to decrease for the higher depths.

A remote sensing-based approach to estimate actual evapotranspiration (ET) was tested in an area covered by olive trees and characterized by Mediterranean climate. The methodology is a modified version of the standard FAO-56 dual crop coefficient procedure, in which the crop potential transpiration, T p, is obtained by directly applying the Penman-Monteith (PM) equation with actual canopy characteristics (i.e., leaf area index, albedo and canopy height) derived from optical remote sensing data. Due to the minimum requirement of in-situ ancillary inputs, the methodology is suitable also for applications on large areas where the use of tabled crop coefficient values become problematic, due to the need of corrections for specific crop parameters, i.e., percentage of ground cover, crop height, phenological cycles, etc. The methodology was applied using seven airborne remote sensing images acquired during spring-autumn 2008. The estimates based on PM approach always outperforms the ones obtained using simple crop coefficient constant values. Additionally, the comparison of simulated daily evapotranspiration and transpiration with the values observed by eddy correlation and sap flow techniques, respectively, shows a substantial agreement during both dry and wet days with an accuracy in the order of 0.5 and 0.3 mm d−1, respectively. The obtained results suggest the capability of the proposed approach to correctly partition evaporation and transpiration components during both the irrigation season and rainy period also under conditions of significant reduction of actual ET from the potential one.

The knowledge of crop response to water stress is crucial to predict transpiration reductions under limited soil water conditions and for a rational scheduling of irrigation. In order to assess whatever water stress model, it is necessary to estimate critical thresholds of soil water status, below which plant transpiration starts to decrease. The main objective of the work is to identify the shape and to determine the parameters of table olive orchards (Olea europaea, var. Nocellara del Belice) water stress function, assessed according to relative transpiration or leaf/stem water potential. In order to assess different water stress functions describing the eco-physiological field response to soil water status, an experimental campaign was carried out in a farm located in South-West coast of Sicily. Meteorological data and soil and crop water status were monitored during irrigation seasons 2008 and 2009. A value of soil matric potential of about −40 m was identified as the threshold below which actual transpiration decreases with decreasing soil water content. For values of soil matric potential higher than the critical threshold, actual transpiration resulted almost constant. A similar behavior was observed when the xylematic leaf/stem water potentials were used to quantify the crop water stress. Investigation also showed that the non-linear models better reproduced the initial phase of the transpiration reduction process; for the examined crop, in fact, convex shape models, typical of xerophytes, better reproduce the reductions of actual transpiration under the soil water deficit conditions recognized in the field.

Correct estimation of crop actual transpiration plays a key-role in precision irrigation scheduling, since crop growth and yield are associated to the water passing through the crop. Objective of the work was to assess how the combined use of micro-meteorological techniques (eddy covariance, EC) and physiological measurements (sap flow, SF) allows a better comprehension of the processes involving in the Soil–Plant–Atmosphere continuum. To this aim, an experimental dataset of actual evapotranspiration, plant transpiration, and soil water content measurements was collected in an olive orchard during the midseason phenological period of 2009 and 2010. It was demonstrated that the joint use of EC and SF techniques is effective to evaluate the components of actual evapotranspiration in an olive orchard characterized by sparse vegetation and a significant fraction of exposed bare soil. The availability of simultaneous soil water content measurements allowed to estimate the crop coefficients and to assess a simple crop water stress index, depending on actual transpiration that can be evaluated even in the absence of direct measurements of actual transpiration. The crop coefficients experimentally determined resulted very similar to those previously evaluated; in particular, in the absence of water stress, a seasonal average value of about 0.65 was obtained for the “single” crop coefficient, whereas values of a 0.34 and 0.41 were observed under limited water availability in the root zone. The comparison between the values of crop water stress index evaluated during the investigated periods evidenced systematically lower values (less crop water stress) in the first year compared to the second, according to the general trend of soil waters content in the root zone. Further researches are however necessary to extent the experimental dataset to periods characterized by values of soil evaporation higher than those observed, in order to verify the crop coefficients even under different conditions than those investigated.

[EN] The use of lay-flat polyethylene pipes to irrigate horticultural crops has been receiving widespread attention in the last decade, due to the significant improvements in their hydraulic performance, their potentially high application efficiency, and their limited installation costs. However, even if hydraulic design procedures for conventional microirrigation systems are fairly well established, there is still the need to know how different pipe-wall thicknesses of lay-flat pipes can affect the pipe geometry under different operating pressures as well as the related consequences on friction losses. This paper, after comparing two different procedures (caliper and photographic) to assess the geometry of lay-flat polyethylene pipes under different operating pressures, analyzes the friction losses per unit of pipe length, J, in order to identify and to assess a procedure for their evaluation. Hydrostatic tests, initially carried out on pipes with wall thicknesses of 6, 8, and 10 thousandth of an inch (mil), evidenced that the pipe dimensions measured with both methods are quite similar, despite the generally higher standard deviations characterizing caliper measurements when compared to photographic method. Tests allowed to verify that most of the changes in pipe dimensions occur within a range of pressure from 0 kPa to about 30 kPa, with pipe horizontal width and vertical height quite similar at higher pressures and pipes have a tendency to become circular. Additionally, due to the elasticity of the material, over a certain limit of water pressure, both the pipe dimensions tend to rise, with a trend depending on pipe thickness. According to the experimental data, the relationships between pipe effective diameter and water pressure were then determined for the three considered pipes. Moreover, based on measured friction losses and pipe effective diameters, it was confirmed that the relationship between the Darcy-Weisbach friction factor, f, and the Reynolds number, R, can be described by a power equation in which, by assuming a value of -0.25 for the exponent, it results a coefficient c = 0.285, lower than the theoretical. For the three investigated pipes the errors associated to estimated J were finally evaluated by considering (1) the experimental relationships between friction factor and Reynolds number as well as between pipe diameter and operating pressure (Case A); (2) the same value of c, but pipe effective diameters of 16.20, 16.10, and 15.85 mm corresponding to p = p(lim) (Case B); (3) the standard procedure, with a value of c = 0.302 and the pipe diameter equal to 16.10 mm, as suggested by the manufacturer. The results evidenced that suitable estimations of J need to account for the variations of the pipe effective diameter with water pressure. On the other hand, incorrect values of pipe diameter combined with inexact values of the friction factor generate inaccurate estimations of friction losses, with unavoidable consequences in pipe design. (C) 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers., The research was cofinanced by Universita di Palermo (FFR 2011) and Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Universita e della Ricerca (PRIN 2010). All the authors setup the research and discussed the results. V. Alagna and D. Autovino carried out the experimental measurements and G. Provenzano wrote the paper. A special thank to the Committee for International Relations Office (CORI) of University of Palermo to support the research cooperation with the University of Valencia.

Frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) downhole sensors have been increasingly used for soil moisture field monitoring because they allow measurement, even continuously, along a soil profile. Moreover, they can also be installed with minimal soil disturbance around the access tube. The objectives of the paper were to assess the field and laboratory calibration protocols for a FDR capacitance probe (Diviner 2000) for a range of soils characterized by different particle size distributions and shrink/swell potential and to propose a practical and effective protocol on the basis of undisturbed soil samples, accounting for soil shrinkage/swelling processes characterizing swelling clay soils. The experiments showed that on coarse-textured soils, field calibration under wet, moist, and dry conditions allows estimations of the volumetric soil water content, with root-mean-square error (RMSE) values always lower than 0.058 cm3 · cm-3. On the contrary, the problems occurring in the field on finer-textured soils, which are characterized by a clay content ranging between 36.7 and 45.1% and moderate to high shrink/swell potential, did not permit identification of suitable calibration equations and then accurate estimations of the soil water content. For such soils, in fact, a great dispersion of the experimental data and consequently high error values associated with the site-specific calibration equations, i.e., up to 0.121 cm3 · cm-3 for the soil characterized by the highest clay percentage, were observed. The laboratory experiments were carried out by using undisturbed soil monoliths which, compared with sieved soils, have the advantage of accounting for the natural soil structure surrounding the access tube and monitoring the soil shrinkage processes occurring in clay soils during sensor calibration experiments. The Diviner 2000 calibration equations obtained in the laboratory were characterized by error values generally lower than those obtained in the field and always smaller than 0.053 cm3 · cm-3. Finally, in the range of a soil water content between approximately 10% and the maximum observed, the scaled frequency measured by the sensor was almost constant at a decreasing soil water content. This circumstance can be ascribed to the normal phase of the shrinkage process determining the compensative effects between the reduction of the volumetric soil water content and the increasing soil bulk density. The maximum variations of scaled frequency were observed in the range of the soil water content, for which the resulting soil bulk density was approximately constant. The knowledge of the soil shrinkage characteristic curve therefore assumes a key role when calibrating FDR sensors on shrinking/swelling clay soils.

he knowledge of soil water content (SWC) of the upper soil layer is important for most hydrological processes occurring over vegetated areas and under dry climate. Because direct field measurements of SWC are difficult, the use of different type of sensors and model-based approaches have been proposed and extensively used during the last decade. The main objective of this work is to assess the performance of two models estimating SWC of the upper soil layer: the transient line heat source method and the physically based Hydrus-1D model. The models' performance is assessed using field measurements acquired through a Time Domain Reflectometer (TDR). The experiment was carried out on an olive orchard located near the town of Castelvetrano (South-West of Sicily - latitude 37.6429°, longitude 12.8471°). The temporal dynamic of topsoil water content was investigated in two samplers, under wet and dry conditions. The samplers were opened at the upper boundary and inserted into the soil to ensure the continuity of the soil surface. A K2D Pro sensor allowed to measure the soil thermal properties allowing to estimate soil thermal inertia and then SWC. The physically based Hydrus-1D model was also used to estimate SWC of both samples. Hourly records of soil water contents, acquired by a TDR100 probe, were used to validate both the considered models. The comparison between SWCs simulated by Hydrus-1D and the corresponding values measured by the TDR method evidenced a good agreement. Similarly, even SWCs derived from the thermal diffusion model resulted fairly close to those measured with the TDR.

Reference evapotranspiration (ET 0 ) is widely used for irrigation scheduling, to promote an efficient use of water resources for a sustainable agro-ecosystem productivity, as well as to manage water quality and to face other environmental concerns. As suggested by ASCE-EWRI and FAO, standard Penman–Monteith methods are generally applied for an accurate estimation of ET 0 from hourly to daily scale. In absence of detailed meteorological information several simplified equations, using a limited number of variables, have been proposed as alternative. In this paper, the performance of different reference evapotranspiration methods, at hourly (Penman–Monteith, Pristley–Taylor, Makkink and Turc) and daily scale (Penman–Monteith, Blaney and Criddle, Hargreaves, Pristley–Taylor, Makkink and Turc), was evaluated against scintillometer measurements collected during six month in 2005 in an experimental plot maintained under “reference” conditions (alfalfa crop). The daily values of ET 0 obtained with the examined methodologies were then used as input in the FAO-56 agro-hydrological model, in order to evaluate, for an olive grove in a Mediterranean environment, the impact on simulated actual evapotranspiration. The experiment was carried out in South-West Sicily, in an area where olive groves are the major crop. The comparison between estimated and measured fluxes confirmed that FAO-56 Penman–Monteith (PM) standardized equation is characterized by the lowest mean bias error (−0.15 mm d −1 and 0.06 mm d −1 using daily or hourly data, respectively). Additionally, the analysis also highlighted that the Pristley–Taylor equation can be considered a valid alternative for an accurate estimation of ET 0 (mean bias error of 0.35 mm d −1 and 0.43 mm d −1 using daily or hourly data, respectively). The application of the FAO-56 water balance model on the investigated olive grove evidenced that the best estimations of actual evapotranspiration are obtained when the Pristley–Taylor ET 0 data are used as input, confirming that this approach can be considered a valid alternative to the standard Penman–Monteith.

This paper compares two agro-hydrological models that are used to schedule irrigation of a typical Mediterranean crop. In particular, a comparison between the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) model, which uses a black box approach, and the soil-water-atmosphere-plant (SWAP) model, which is based on the numerical analysis of Richards' equation, are shown for wine grape. The comparison was carried out for the 2005 and 2006 irrigation seasons and focused on hydrological balance components and on soil water contents. Next, the ordinary scheduling parameters were identified so that the performance of the two models, which aimed to evaluate the seasonal water requirements and the irrigation times, could be assessed. In the validation phase, both of the models satisfactorily simulated the soil water content, and comparable values of cumulative evapotranspiration were obtained. With the goal of recognizing the crop water stress condition in the field, the original algorithm of the FAO model was modified. This research provided evidence of how the two agrohydrological models, although characterized by different approaches in modeling the phenomena, showed a similar behaviour when used for scheduling irrigation under soil water deficit conditions.

Summary A coupled energy/hydrologic model was applied to simulate the exchange of energy and water in the soil–plant-atmosphere system (SPA). The model, which uses a “two-source” approach to estimate the energy fluxes, and the “force-restore” approach to represent the water balance, was validated by means of evapotranspiration measurements collected via scintillometry and soil moisture measurements collected via time domain reflectometry (TDR) in a Sicilian olive grove. The comparison between measured and estimated fluxes values at an hourly scale showed good agreement. Additional comparisons on a daily timescale confirmed the model’s applicability for quantifying crop water requirements. Also in terms of daily evapotranspiration and soil water content values, the obtained results confirmed the model’s applicability for those practical applications aiming to quantify the crop water requirement. Moreover, further studies should be conducted to test the feasibility of using this model for long term simulations over a broad range of conditions.

Actual evapotranspiration from typical Mediterranean crops has been assessed in a Sicilian study area by using surface energy balance (SEB) and soil-water balance models. Both modelling approaches use remotely sensed data to estimate evapotranspiration fluxes in a spatially distributed way. The first approach exploits visible (VIS), near-infrared (NIR) and thermal (TIR) observations to solve the surface energy balance equation whereas the soil-water balance model uses only VIS-NIR data to detect the spatial variability of crop parameters. Considering that the study area is characterized by typical spatially sparse Mediterranean vegetation, i.e. olive, citrus and vineyards, alternating bare soil and canopy, we focused the attention on the main conceptual differences between one-source and two-sources energy balance models. Two different models have been tested: the widely used one-source SEBAL model, where soil and vegetation are considered as the sole source (mostly appropriate in the case of uniform vegetation coverage) and the two-sources TSEB model, where soil and vegetation components of the surface energy balance are treated separately. Actual evapotranspiration estimates by means of the two surface energy balance models have been compared vs. the outputs of the agro-hydrological SWAP model, which was applied in a spatially distributed way to simulate one-dimensional water flow in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. Remote sensing data in the VIS and NIR spectral ranges have been used to infer spatially distributed vegetation parameters needed to set up the upper boundary condition of SWAP. Actual evapotranspiration values obtained from the application of the soil water balance model SWAP have been considered as the reference to be used for energy balance models accuracy assessment. Airborne hyperspectral data acquired during a NERC (Natural Environment Research Council, UK) campaign in 2005 have been used. The results of this investigation seem to prove a slightly better agreement between SWAP and TSEB for some fields of the study area. Further investigations are programmed in order to confirm these indications.

The authors deal with the quite interesting and actual problem of Diviner 2000 capacitance probe calibration and present some field and laboratory data obtained on two different layers (0–0.26 and 0.26–0.50 cm) of the same soil profile, characterized by different textural class. The importance of site-specific calibration of sensors used to monitor soil or plant water status assumes a particular relevance in semiarid environments where the application of precision irrigation represents an appropriate management strategy aimed to achieve high values of water use efficiency (Cammalleri et al. 2013). Moreover, in clay soils, physical properties are strongly influenced by soil water content (Provenzano et al. 2013), so that the correct measurement of this variable plays a key role to increasing crop yield and preserving water. However, the discussers would focus on some significant points to be corrected in the manuscript and some others that should have been specified in the methodology and considered in the final discussion, as following specified, for the benefit of potential readers. The need to adequately install the access tube, aimed to ensure the contact between the tube and the surrounding soil, is not only to avoid preferential flow of water down the walls of the tube, as considered in the paper, but also to reduce the air gap around the tube and to avoid rough measurements of scaled frequency, used to estimate soil water contents, whose values depend on the mutual proportion of soil, water, and air in the soil volume investigated by the sensor. With reference to the second part of Eq. (2) of original paper, it is necessary to precise that the function θwðSFÞ correctly results