Periods of water stress in olive trees under regulated deficit irrigation do not affect their anatomical structure

Póster presentado en el Xylem International Meeting, 7-9 September 2015, Bordeaux, France.
Regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) is widely recommended for high density olive orchards. However, plants under this irrigation strategy are exposed to sudden and marked changes in soil water status. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of RDI on main xylem anatomical traits of olive trees and to assess their influence in the plant water status and gas exchange. We worked with trees in a super high density `Arbequina¿ olive orchard, under both full irrigation (FI) and a RDI treatment supplying ca. 45% of the water applied to the FI trees. Marked differences between treatments both in water status and gas exchange were found in periods when irrigation was reduced for the RDI trees. Despite of the differences on water status, xylem vessel density, xylem vessel diameter distribution and theoretical specific conductivity, were not influence by the irrigation treatments. This agrees with the high adaptation of the olive tree to drought. In summary, our results suggest that RDI can be used in olive orchards without causing permanent hydraulic limitation in the plants.