Water use of a super high-density olive orchard submitted to regulated deficit irrigation in Mediterranean environment over three contrasted years

Abstract

The measurement of transpiration at the eld level is a challenging topic in crop water use research, particularly for orchards. The super high density olive orchard system is in great expansion all over the world, so these investigations are necessary to assess the trees water use under different irrigation techniques. Here, transpiration at plant and stand scales was measured using the sap ow thermal dissipation method, in an olive orchard (cv. "Arbosana") subjected to full and regulated de cit irrigation (RDI) with a withholding irrigation period under Mediterranean climate (southern Italy). The measurement method was used after speci c calibration and correction for wound effect, azimuthal and gradient errors. Water use e ciency (WUE) and water productivity (WP) were determined over three complete growth seasons (2019)(2020)(2021)(2022). The seasons were submitted to highly contrasted weathers.Measurements of stem water potential and stomatal conductance showed that the RDI trees were under mild-moderate water stress only during the withholding irrigation period. Results showed that seasonal Tr was not signi cantly different in the two treatments in all seasons (249 and 267 kgm − 2 , 249 and 262 kgm − 2 , 231 and 202 kgm-2 for FI and RDI in the three seasons, respectively) and that WUE was greater in RDI treatment without any impact on yield. The main conclusion is that, when the available water in the soil is limited, olive trees decrease transpiration under any atmospheric conditions, but when the water in the soil is amply available, drought conditions lead to a decrease in tree transpiration.

Climate change impacts on temperate fruit and nut production: a systematic review

“…Deficit irrigation has historically been the main strategy used in olive trees and grapevine to manage fruit quality ( Fernandes de Oliveira et al., 2013 ; Galindo et al., 2018 ; Araujo et al., 2019 ; Buesa et al., 2019 ; Kokkotos et al., 2020 ; Siakou et al., 2021 ; Ibba et al., 2023 ; Ferrara et al., 2024 ), and it is becoming a popular strategy in other crops, including mandarins ( El-Otmani et al., 2020 ), pomegranates ( Galindo et al., 2018 ; Adiba et al., 2022 ), apples ( Panzacchi et al., 2012 ; Kendall et al., 2022 ), almonds ( Gutierrez-Gordillo et al., 2020 ; Barreales et al., 2023 ), peaches ( Ruiz-Sánchez et al., 2018 ), apricots ( Ezzat et al., 2021 ), and pistachios ( Marino et al., 2018 ). In brief, the idea is to reduce the amount of water provided to the crop during the growing season, improving marketable yield per unit of water and end-product quality, rather than achieving maximum yields ( Ronco et al., 2017 ; Galindo et al., 2018 ; El-Otmani et al., 2020 ).…”

Continuous Plant-Based and Remote Sensing for Determination of Fruit Tree Water Status

“…Ferrara et al used sap flow meters with the thermal dissipation method to evaluate the influence of the water deficit on the water use efficiency and water productivity in olive trees (cv. Arbosana) cultivated in an adult super-high-density orchard [174]. In orange (Citrus sinensis Osbeck), Cohen's heat pulse (T max ) sap flow was successfully used to identify water stress conditions [175].…”