Soybean water use in the shelter of a slat-fence windbreak

✍ Scribed by David R. Miller; Norman J. Rosenberg; Walter T. Bagley

• Book ID: 102979210
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1973
• Weight: 766 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0002-1571
• DOI: 10.1016/0002-1571(73)90086-1

✦ Synopsis

Evaporative and photosynthetic flux rates were measured in wind sheltered and exposed irrigated soybeans in an eastern Great Plains (U.S.A.) location. Portable slat-fencing of 50% porosity was used to provide shelter.

Evapotranspiration was measured with precision weighing lysimeters. CO 2 flux was estimated from CO 2 gradient measurements and calculated exchange coefficients. Multiplicative effects of the windbreak on the irrigated soybean crop over time were eliminated by frequent moves of the barrier between two sites in the experimental field.

The intensity of turbulent exchange was decreased in the shelter. Vapor pressure, air temperature and CO 2 concentration gradients were intensified in shelter. During six days of measurement,shelter caused a mean 20% decrease in evapotranspiration. The water saving was greatest when sensible heat advection was important, CO 2 photosynthetic flux rates estimates suggest no difference caused by shelter effect.