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Measuring Water Use Efficiency in Grapevines

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Methodologies and Results in Grapevine Research

Abstract

Viticulture is strongly conditioned by water availability in many areas and this limitation increases according to climatic change predictions. Maximizing grape water use efficiency (WUE) has become a key objective in management practices as well as a target for new environmental friendly cultivars. The goals of this chapter are to define the different spatial and temporal scales at which WUE can be measured and to describe the presently available methodologies to perform these determinations. Three different levels of WUE are distinguished: Vineyard or Crop (WUEc), Plant (WUEp) and Leaf (WUEl). The meaningful of the different WUE parameters depends on the objective of the study and the methodology used. Positive and negative implications of the available methodologies to measure or estimate WUE at the different spatial and temporal scales are discussed, as well as the existing relationships between these different parameters to estimate WUE.

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Abbreviations

A N :

Leaf net photosynthesis

AN/E:

Instantaneous leaf water use efficiency

AN/g:

Intrinsic leaf water use efficiency

Ca :

CO2 concentration in the atmosphere

Ci :

CO2 concentration at the substomatal cavity

Δ13C:

13C discrimination

E:

Leaf transpiration

ei :

Water vapor pressure at the substomatal cavity

ea :

Water vapor pressure in the atmosphere

gs :

Stomatal conductance

TDM:

Total plant dry matter

TWC:

Total plant water consumption

VPD:

Vapor pressure deficit

WUE:

Water use efficiency

WUEc:

Vineyard or Crop water use efficiency

WUEp:

Plant water use efficiency

WUEl :

Leaf water use efficiency

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge funding provided by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Research (AGL2008-04525-CO2-01/AGR).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biologia, Grup de Recerca de Biologia de les Plantes en condicions Mediterrànies, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, 07122, Spain

    Hipólito Medrano, J. Flexas, M. Ribas-Carbó & J. Gulías

Authors
  1. Hipólito Medrano
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  2. J. Flexas
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  3. M. Ribas-Carbó
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  4. J. Gulías
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hipólito Medrano .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , UMR Ecophysiologie et Génomique Fonction, Université de Bordeaux, Chemin de Leysotte CS 50008, Villenave d'Ornon, 33882, France

    Serge Delrot

  2. , IMEDEA-Dept. de Biologia, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Carretera Valldemossa Km. 7,5, Palma de Mallorca, 01722, Spain

    Hipólito Medrano

  3. Agriculturall Research Organisation, The Volcani Center, Institute of Horticulture, Bet Dagan, 50250, Israel

    Etti Or

  4. , Istituto di Frutti-Vitico9ltura, Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via E. Parmense 84, Piacenza, 29100, Italy

    Luigi Bavaresco

  5. , Fondazione Edmund Mach, IASMA Research and Innovation Centre, Via E. mach 1, San Michele alll'Adige (TN), 38010, Italy

    Stella Grando

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Medrano, H., Flexas, J., Ribas-Carbó, M., Gulías, J. (2010). Measuring Water Use Efficiency in Grapevines. In: Delrot, S., Medrano, H., Or, E., Bavaresco, L., Grando, S. (eds) Methodologies and Results in Grapevine Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9283-0_9

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