Use of biosensor for estimating abiotic stresses and technical management of the olive groves irrigation

Abstract EN

Global climate changes will introduce final changes into the agricultural ecosystems which will affect the productivity.

Water stress is considered to be the most important factor limiting plant growth and production.

Thus, monitoring of plant water status in field grown is considered of great interest, as it would allow the diagnoses of the onset and severity of water stress.

This is schedule management practices and irrigation according to the actual plant water requirements.

Changes in plant water status could be described by using a sensitive physiological indicator, which integrates with soil and climatic conditions.

The most recent assessment techniques could establish a quantitative relationship between plant water status and other physiological parameters, which could be monitored easily is the leaf water turgor potential.

Those measurements could be monitored continuously in order to provide a continuous record of plant water state in response to environmental variables.

The aim of our study was to evaluate a quantitative direct relationship of the olive tree water status which is necessary for scheduling irrigation or management practices.

So that plant water status could be maintained above certain thresholds in field grown olive trees.

Obtained data indicated that a critical value of daily leaf water turgor potential decrease could be estimated and could be used as an accurate and simple signal for real-time efficient cultural intervention in olive tree orchard.

This approach has the advantages that it needs only a small number of sensors and little data processing.