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Population, Growth and Water Use of Groundnut Maintained on Stored Water. IV. The Influence of Population on Water Supply and Demand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2008

L. P. Simmonds  and
S. N. Azam-Ali
L. P. Simmonds
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology and Environmental Science, University of Nottingham School of Agriculture, Sutton Bonington, Loughborough, Leics. LE12 5RD, England
S. N. Azam-Ali
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology and Environmental Science, University of Nottingham School of Agriculture, Sutton Bonington, Loughborough, Leics. LE12 5RD, England
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Summary

The objective of this paper is to identify the major factors responsible for the differences in transpiration rate (T) between stands of groundnut grown at three row spacings on stored water in central India. A method of analysis is developed to distinguish between the impact on transpiration of ground cover (which varied threefold between spacings) and of root:shoot ratio, which was substantially greater in the wider row spacings. When the soil was wet, both T and the canopy conductance, gc, were approximately proportional to the fraction (f) of incident radiation intercepted by foliage. But when the soil water content decreased below a threshold value, T/f and gc/f decreased because of an increase in stomatal resistance. Stomatal closure in response to soil water stress occurred sooner in the denser stands, partly because of more rapid depletion of soil water. A second contributory factor was that the sparser stands (which had a relatively large root:shoot ratio) had a greater capacity to keep stomata open as the soil water deficit increased.

Type
Research Article
Information
Experimental Agriculture , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , January 1989 , pp. 87 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

REFERENCES

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