Water shortage is the most important factor constraining agricultural production all over the
world. New irrigation strategies must be established to use the limited water resources more
efficiently. This study was carried out in a completely randomized design with three replications
under the greenhouse condition at Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran. In this study, the
physiological responses of pepper plant affected by irrigation water were investigated. Irrigation treatments included control (full irrigation level, FI) and three deficit irrigation levels, 80, 60 and 40% of the plant’s water requirement called DI80, DI60, and DI40, respectively. A no plant cover treatment with three replications was also used to measure evaporation from the soil surface.
Daily measurements of volumetric soil moisture (VSM) were made at each 10 cm intervals of
the soil column, considered as a layer. The differences between the measured VSM and the VSM
in the next day and evaporation rate at the soil surface at the same layer of the no plant cover
treatment were calculated. Eventually, by considering the applied and collected water in each
treatment, evapotranspiration (ETC) and root water uptake (RWU) in each layer per day were
estimated. Furthermore, fruit number per plant, fresh fruit weight/day, root fresh/dry weight,
shoot fresh/dry weight, root zone volume, root length and density, crop yield, and water use
efficiency (WUE) were measured under different water treatments. The results showed that the
maximum and minimum of all the studied parameters were found in the FI and DI40 treatments,
respectively. ETC in the DI80, DI60, and DI40 treatments were reduced by 14.2, 37.4, and 52.2%,
respectively. Furthermore, applying 80, 60, and 40% of the plant’s water requirement led to crop yield reduction by 29.4, 52.7, and 69.5%, respectively. The averages of root water uptakes (ARWUs) in the DI80, DI60, and DI40 treatments reduced by 17.08, 48.72, and 68.25%, respectively. WUE and crop yield also showed no significant difference in the FI and DI80 treatments. Moreover, in the DI80 treatment the reduced rate of water uptake was less than the
reduced rate of plant's applied water. According to these results, it can be concluded that 20%
deficit irrigation had no significant reduction on the yield of pepper, but above this threshold,
there was an adverse effect on the growth and yield. Therefore, for water management in the
regions with limited water resources, plant's applied water can be decreased around 20%.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/626132 |
| Date | 25 January 2017 |
| Creators | Mardani, Sara, Tabatabaei, Sayyed Hassan, Pessarakli, Mohammad, Zareabyaneh, Hamid |
| Contributors | Univ Arizona, Coll Agr & Life Sci, College of Agriculture, University of Bu-Ali Sina, Hamedan, Iran, College of Agriculture, University of Shahrekord, Shahrekord, Iran, School of Plant Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Science, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA, College of Agriculture, University of Bu-Ali Sina, Hamedan, Iran |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article |
| Rights | © 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC |
| Relation | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01904167.2016.1269342 |
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