Influence of Soil and Irrigation Management on the Quality of Seedless Crimson Table Grapes

The market for table grapes is moving into mass production of specialty seed-less grapes in covered areas, aiming at obtaining premium prices with early or late production of high quality products. Production of quality seedless grapes is not straightforward since it is requires the correct combination of various independent characteristics, such as color, sugars, size and quantity at the right moment for successful harvesting and marketing. The present study was carried out at the two largest Portuguese producers located in Alentejo, and has the objective of studying the effect of irrigation management strategies and two different soils on the various relevant parameters for successful production and marketing. The management strategies were the application of ten day stress at the end of the cycle, in order to promote early maturing of the grapes. Three different timings of the stress were applied. Soil moisture, sap flow, bark thickness, as well as leaf water potential, stomatal conductance and chlorophyll content were measured regularly during the production season. The results indicate that the roots explore a rather large soil volume and the plants can successfully withstand reasonable periods of drought without significant changes to the plant physiology. Additionally late rains can mask the effect of any farmer applied drought and invalidate any farmer induced stress to the plants. Water-logged soils tend to cause early onset of maturity, but cause the ripening stage to extend over a longer period of time, and thus, in effect result in a delay in the harvest date. Topography also has some effect on the ripening, since hot air tends to accumulate under the plastic at the higher areas of the field. This work is funded by PRODER, 4.1, within the scope of project MORECRIMSON

Irrigation management with remote sensing: Evaluating irrigation requirement for maize under Mediterranean climate condition

tWater use control methods and water resources planning are of high priority. In irrigated agriculture, theright way to save water is to increase water use efficiency through better management. The present workvalidates procedures and methodologies using remote sensing to determine the water availability in thesoil at each moment, giving the opportunity for the application of the water depth strictly necessaryto optimise crop growth (optimum irrigation timing and irrigation amount). The analysis is applied tothe Irrigation District of Divor, Évora, using 7 experimental plots, which are areas irrigated by centre-pivot systems, cultivated to maize. Data were determined from images of the cultivated surface obtainedby satellite and integrated with atmosphere and crop parameters to calculate biophysical indicatorsand indices of water stress in the vegetation—Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Kc, andKcb. Therefore, evapotranspiration (ETc) was estimated and used to calculate crop water requirement,together with the opportunity and the amount of irrigation water to allocate. Although remote sensingdata available from satellite imagery presented some practical constraints, the study could contribute tothe validation of a new methodology that can be used for irrigation management of a large irrigated area,easier and at lower costs than the traditional FAO recommended crop coefficients method. The remotesensing based methodology can also contribute to significant saves of irrigation water.

The Impacts of Climate Change on Irrigated Agriculture in Southern Portugal

Climate change projections point to increasing air temperature and reduced precipitation in southern Portugal, which would affect farming systems. This study aims to assess the impacts of climate change on irrigated agriculture in southern Portugal. These impacts were assessed by combining climate model data with a soil water balance model and a numerical model for the design of irrigation systems. Meteorological data from two weather stations were used along with three climate models (HadRM3P, HIRHAMh and HIRHAMhh; 2071–2100). The crop rotations studied included sugar beet–maize–tomato–wheat and sunflower–wheat–barley. Two adaptation measures were considered: (i) maintaining the current crop varieties; (ii) using new crop varieties. The results from the considered climate change scenarios indicated that the impacts of climate change on irrigation requirements depend on the adopted adaptation measures. On average, the seasonal irrigation requirements increased by 13–70% when new crop varieties were used and by −13 to 7% when the current crop varieties were maintained. The impacts of climate change on irrigation system design were considerable, with the design flow rate increasing by 5–24%.

Vazão em soleiras controladas ou não por comportas

Os controladores de caudal, normalmente implementados em sistemas Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), apresentam uma grande relevância no controlo automático de canais de adução. Para garantir que os controladores de caudal sejam fiáveis em todo o seu domínio de funcionamento (em situações de escoamento com ressalto livre ou submerso e de transição entre escoamentos com ressalto livre e ressalto submerso) foram comparados os resultados dos ensaios experimentais com diferentes métodos de cálculo da vazão em comportas e/ou sobre soleiras. O programa de ensaios foi realizado nos canais laboratorial e experimental da Universidade de Évora. Foram realizados ensaios em comportas planas verticais e em soleiras do tipo Waterways Experiment Station (WES) controladas ou não por comportas planas verticais. Em ambos os casos, foram contempladas as situações de escoamento com ressalto livre e submerso. Os resultados obtidos mostram que: a) para as comportas, o método Rajaratnam e Subramanya (1967a) conduz a bons resultados com um erro percentual médio absoluto MAPE < 1% para o escoamento com ressalto livre e MAPE < 4% para o submerso; a transição entre escoamentos foi identificada corretamente por este método; b) para as soleiras, obtiveram-se bons resultados para o escoamento com ressalto livre para o método USACE (1987), com MAPE < 2%, e para o submerso através do método Alves e Martins (2011), com MAPE < 5%; a transição entre escoamentos pode ser considerada adequada de acordo com a curva experimental de Grace (1963); c) para soleiras controladas por comporta, conseguiram-se bons resultados para o escoamento com ressalto livre recorrendo à equação dos orifícios de pequenas dimensões, com MAPE < 1, 5%, e para o submerso com a equação dos orifícios totalmente submersos com MAPE < 1, 6%; em ambos os casos foi necessária calibração do coeficiente de vazão; a transição entre escoamentos foi adequada pelo método de Grace (1963). Com base nos resultados obtidos, foi possível definir um algoritmo de vazão generalizado para comportas e/ou soleiras que permite a determinação da vazão para as situações de escoamento com ressalto livre e submerso incluindo a transição entre escoamentos; ABSTRACT: Flow controllers, usually implemented in Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, are very important in the automatic control of irrigation canal systems. To ensure that flow controllers are reliable for the entire operating range (free or submerged flow and flow transitions) the experimental results were compared with different methods of flow measurement for gates and/or weirs. The test program was conducted in the laboratory flume and in the automatic canal of the University of ´Evora. Tests were carried in sluice gates and in broad-crested weirs controlled or not by sluice gate. In both cases free and submerged flow conditions were analyzed. The results show that: a) for the sluice gates, the method of Rajaratnam e Subramanya (1967a) leads to good results with a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) < 1% for free flow and MAPE < 4% for submerged flow. The transition between flows is correctly identified by this method; b) for the uncontrolled weir, good results were obtained for free flow with the method USACE (1987) with MAPE < 2%, and for submerged flow by the method Alves e Martins (2011) with MAPE < 5%. The transition between flows can be accurately defined by the experimental curve of Grace (1963); c) for the controlled weir, good results were achieved for the free flow with the small orifice equation with MAPE < 1.5% and for submerged flow with the submerged orifice equation with MAPE < 1.6%; in both cases the calibration of the discharge coefficient is needed. The transition between flows can be accomplished through Grace (1963) method. Based on the obtained results, it was possible to define a generalized flow algorithm for gates and/or weirs that allows flow determination for free and submerged flow conditions including the transition between flows.

Evolução da paisagem de montado na área abrangida pelo EFMA: caso de estudo no concelho de Beja

A construção da Barragem de Alqueva foi durante anos considerada como fundamental no desenvolvimento da sustentabilidade e modernização da agricultura no Alentejo. Por outro lado a sua representação paisagística sempre se agregou a imagens de uma agricultura de sequeiro e extensiva mas hoje estamos perante uma agricultura regada e intensiva, tendo as alterações na agricultura levantado questões relativas à transformação da paisagem desta região. Na atual campanha de rega do Alqueva está previsto no sistema global de rega do projeto um total de 120 mil hectares de regadio, no entanto já existem estudos que possibilitam o aumento desta área, cerca de 45 mil hectares além do projeto inicial (EDIA, acesso em 23-2-2016) Desta forma pretende-se analisar a transformação da ocupação do solo, numa área abrangida pelo EFMA, o concelho de Beja, de modo a perceber como essa transformação ao longo do tempo tem incidido sobre a paisagem e afetado o Montado; EVOLUÇÃO DA PAISAGEM DE MONTADO NA ÁREA ABRANGIDA PELO EFMA C a s o d e E s t u d o n o C o n c e l h o d e B e j a A B S T R A C T: The construction of the Alqueva Dam was fundamental to the sustainable development and modernization of agriculture in the Alentejo. On the other hand its landscape representation has always added an image of an extensive and cutting agriculture but today we are facing a irrigated and intensive agriculture, having as changes in agriculture raised questions related to the transformation of the landscape of the region. In the current irrigation campaign of Alqueva is planned for a total of 120 thousand hectares of irrigation, there are no studies that allow the increase of the area, about 45 thousand hectares beyond the initial project (EDIA, access On 23-2-2016) In this way we intend to analyze a transformation of the land occupation, in an area covered by the EFMA, the Beja municipality, in order to understand how this transformation over time has affected a landscape and affected the Montado.

Modelling and PI Control of an Irrigation Canal

The main goal of this paper is to expose and validate a methodology to design efficient automatic controllers for irrigation canals, based on the Saint-Venant model. This model-based methodology enables to design controllers at the design stage (when the canal is not already built). The methodology is applied on an experimental canal located in Portugal. First the full nonlinear PDE model is calibrated, using a single steady-state experiment. The model is then linearized around a functioning point, in order to design linear PI controllers. Two classical control strategies are tested (local upstream control and distant downstream control) and compared on the canal. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the model.

Evaluation of water use, yield and water productivity of a high-density orchard (cv. Cobrançosa) subjected to different irrigation regimes – An account of four years

The impact of different irrigation scheduling regimes on the water use, yield and water productivity from a high-density olive grove cv. Cobrançosa in southern Portugal was assessed during the irrigation seasons of 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. The experiments were conducted in a commercial olive orchard at the Herdade Álamo de Cima, near Évora (38o 29' 49.44'' N, 7o 45' 8.83'' W; alt. 75 m) in southern Alentejo, Portugal. The orchard was established with 10-year old Cobrançosa trees in grids of 8.0 x 4.2 m (300 trees ha-1) in the E-W direction, and experiments conducted on a shallow sandy loam Regosoil Haplic soil. From mid-May to the end of September the orchard was irrigated and three plots were subjected to one of two irrigation treatments: a control treatment A, irrigated to replace 100% ETc, a moderate deficit irrigation treatment B irrigated to 70% of ETc, and a more severe deficit irrigation treatment C that provided for approximately 50% of ETc. Daily tree transpiration rates were obtained by continuously monitoring of sap flow in representative trees per treatment. Among the irrigated treatments, water use efficiency (WUE, ratio of water used to irrigation- water applied) of treatment C was the highest, with a value of 0.89, being treatment B slightly lower, with a WUE of 0.76. Olive harvest for 2012 was an exceptional “on year”. Bearing yields showed contrasting differences within years where an “on year” was followed by an “off year”. In 2011 and 2012 treatment B yields were 41 and 50% higher than treatment C, respectively. In 2013 treatment B yield was 45% higher than yield of the fully irrigated treatment A, and treatment C showed practically the same yield than treatment A. In the “on year” of 2014 treatment B averaged 48% higher yield than treatment C. Treatment B farm irrigation water productivity (WPI-Farm, ratio of yield to water applied) was the highest among all treatments. Treatment A showed the lowest conversion efficiency of all treatments, indicating treatment B as the adequate deficit irrigation treatment for our Cobrançosa orchard

Impacts of crop level, soil and irrigation management in grape berries of cv ‘Trincadeira’ (Vitis vinifera L.)

Berry size and crop yield are widely recognized as important factors that contribute to wine quality. The final berry size indirectly affects the phenolic concentration of the wine due to skin surface-to-berry volume ratio. The effects of different irrigation levels, soil management and plant crop level on growth of ‘Trincadeira’ berries were studied. In order to test the influence of different irrigation levels (rainfed, pre-veraison and post-veraison), different soil management (tillage and natural cover crops) and different plant crop levels (8 and 16 clusters per vine), leaf water potential, skin anthocyanin, polyphenols, berry skin and seed fresh weight were measured in fruits. The segregation of berries into three different berry classes: small, medium and large, allowed to identify different levels of contribution of soil management and irrigation level into berry, skin and seeds ratios. As expected, higher water availability due to irrigation and soil tillage management during berry development induced an increase in berry flesh weight and this was more evident in larger berries; however, berry skin and seed fresh weight remained unchanged. Also, anthocyanins did not show significant differences.

Leaf water potential and sap flow as indicators of water stress in Crimson ‘seedless’ grapevines under different irrigation strategies

Vitis vinifera L. cv. Crimson Seedless is a late season red table grape developed in 1989, with a high market value and increasingly cultivated under protected environments to extend the availability of seedless table grapes into the late fall. The purpose of this work was to evaluate leaf water potential and sap flow as indicators of water stress in Crimson Seedless vines under standard and reduced irrigation strategy, consisting of 70 % of the standard irrigation depth. Additionally, two sub-treatments were applied, consisting of normal irrigation throughout the growing season and a short irrigation induced stress period between veraison and harvest. Leaf water potential measurements coherently signaled crop-available water variations caused by different irrigation treatments, suggesting that this plant-based method can be reliably used to identify water-stress conditions. The use of sap flow density data to establish a ratio based on a reference ‘well irrigated vine’ and less irrigated vines can potentially be used to signal differences in the transpiration rates, which may be suitable for improving irrigation management strategies while preventing undesirable levels of water stress. Although all four irrigation strategies resulted in the production of quality table grapes, significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) were found in both berry weight and sugar content between the standard irrigation and reduced irrigation treatments. Reduced irrigation increased slightly the average berry size as well as sugar content and technical maturity index. The 2-week irrigation stress period had a negative effect on these parameters.

Leaf water potential and sap flow as indicators of water stress in Crimson 'seedless' grapevines under different irrigation strategies

Abstract Vitis vinifera L. cv. Crimson Seedless is a late season red table grape developed in 1989, with a high market value and increasingly cultivated under protected environments to extend the availability of seedless table grapes into the late fall. The purpose of this work was to evaluate leaf water potential and sap flow as indicators of water stress in Crimson Seedless vines under standard and reduced irrigation strategy, consisting of 70 % of the standard irrigation depth. Additionally, two sub-treatments were applied, consisting of normal irrigation throughout the growing season and a short irrigation induced stress period between veraison and harvest. Leaf water potential measurements coherently signaled crop-available water variations caused by different irrigation treatments, suggesting that this plant-based method can be reliably used to identify water-stress conditions. The use of sap flow density data to establish a ratio based on a reference ‘well irrigated vine’ and less irrigated vines can potentially be used to signal differences in the transpiration rates, which may be suitable for improving irrigation management strategies while preventing undesirable levels of water stress. Although all four irrigation strategies resulted in the production of quality table grapes, significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) were found in both berry weight and sugar content between the standard irrigation and reduced irrigation treatments. Reduced irrigation increased slightly the average berry size as well as sugar content and technical maturity index. The 2-week irrigation stress period had a negative effect on these parameters.