Upscaling Evapotranspiration with Parsimonious Models in a North Carolina Vineyard

oleh: Christian Dold, Joshua Heitman, Gill Giese, Adam Howard, John Havlin, Tom Sauer

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2019-03-01

Deskripsi

Water stress can positively or negatively impact grape yield and yield quality, and there is a need for wine growers to accurately regulate water use. In a four-year study (2010&#8211;2013), energy balance fluxes were measured with an eddy-covariance (EC) system in a North Carolina vineyard (<i>Vitis vinifera</i> cv. Chardonnay), and evapotranspiration (ET) and the Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) calculated. A multiple linear regression model was developed to upscale ET using air temperature (Ta), vapor pressure deficit (VPD), and Landsat-derived Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI). Daily ET reached values of up to 7.7 mm day<sup>&#8722;1</sup>, and the annual ET was 752 &#177; 59 mm, as measured with the EC system. The grapevine CWSI was between 0.53&#8211;0.85, which indicated moderate water stress levels. Median vineyard EVI was between 0.22 and 0.72, and the EVI range (max&#8211;min) within the vineyard was 0.18. The empirical models explained 75%&#8211;84% of the variation in ET, and all parameters had a positive linear relationship to ET. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) was 0.52&#8211;0.62 mm. This study presents easily applicable approaches to analyzing water dynamics and ET. This may help wine growers to cost-effectively quantify water use in vineyards.