Characteristics of soil evaporation at two stages of growth in apple orchards with different ages in a semi-humid region
Soil evaporation (E) accounts for a significant portion of the hydrological cycle especially under hot and dry conditions. The Loess Plateau of China contains the world’s largest area of apple orchards cultivated in a rather extensive way (720 trees ha−1), while few studies were conducted to explore...
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| Published in: | Agricultural water management 2023-04, Vol.280, p.108233, Article 108233 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Soil evaporation (E) accounts for a significant portion of the hydrological cycle especially under hot and dry conditions. The Loess Plateau of China contains the world’s largest area of apple orchards cultivated in a rather extensive way (720 trees ha−1), while few studies were conducted to explore the characteristics of E at different stages of growth in apple orchards with different ages in water-limited regions. In this work, we measured E, sap flow, throughfall, stemflow and the leaf area index (LAI) in 7- and 17-year-old rainfed apple orchards in Changwu County on the Loess Plateau from May to September 2012–2015. We divided the stages of growth of the apple trees into stage I (rapid foliar growth) and stage II (rapid fruit enlargement and maturation) based on the seasonal variation of LAI and constructed empirical models for predicting E in each orchard at different growth stages. Tree age clearly affected the dynamics of daily E and the ratio of E to evapotranspiration (E:ET) for apple orchards. Daily E and E:ET during the four growing seasons were significantly higher for the 7-year-old orchard (1.3±0.5 mm d−1 and 55.1±10.4%, respectively) than the 17-year-old orchard (1.1±0.5 mm d−1 and 44.1±10.9%, respectively) (p |
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| ISSN: | 0378-3774 1873-2283 |