Abstract

USON, Asunción; DANIEL, Isidoro  and  DECHMI, Farida. Crop root cuantification in intensive sprinkler irrigation system. Rev. de Ciências Agrárias [online]. 2022, vol.45, n.4, pp.171-180.  Epub Dec 01, 2022. ISSN 0871-018X.  https://doi.org/10.19084/rca.28415.

The main goal of this work is to quantify the depth distribution of crop root system under sprinkler irrigation in the Ebro Valley (Spain), in order to use this information in hydrological and crop simulation models. Soil cylinders have been sampled in the anthesis phase of the four main crops: barley, corn, alfalfa and peas. Crop roots have been extracted by washing. No roots were observed below 40 cm for all considered crops. Up to that depth the density of the root system clearly decreases with depth for maize and alfalfa. Almost 80% of the roots are found in the first 20 cm of the soil, although barley has shown a more homogeneous distribution in depth. Considering all soil profile, more roots density have been found in this work than in previous studies, especially for barley and corn, which is justified by the intensification of irrigated cultivation. However, legume crops on fine-textured soils have shown less roots density. The results obtained will help to improve the hydrological and nutrient load modeling in sprinkler intensive irrigation systems at both field and watershed scales.

Keywords : crop root; crop modelization; irrigation; sprinkler.

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