Monitoring and Modelling of Soil-Plant Interactions: the Joint Use of ERT, Sap Flow and Eddy Covariance to Define the Volume of Orange Tree Active Root Zones.

Abstract:

Mass and energy exchanges between soil, plants and atmosphere are key factors controlling a number of environmental processes involving hydrology, biota and climate. The understanding of these exchanges also play a critical role for practical purposes such as precision agriculture. In this contribution we present a methodology based on coupling innovative data collection and models. In particular we propose the use of hydro-geophysical monitoring via 4D Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) in conjunction with measurements of plant transpiration via sap flow and evapotranspiration from Eddy Correlation (EC). This abundance of data are to be fed in spatially distributed soil models in order to comprehend the distribution of active roots. We conducted experiments in an orange orchard in Eastern Sicily (Italy). We installed a 3D electrical tomography apparatus consisting of 4 instrumented micro boreholes placed at the corners of a square (about 1.3 m in side) surrounding an orange tree. During the monitoring, we collected repeated ERT and TDR soil moisture measurements, soil water sampling, sap flow measurements from the orange tree and EC data. Irrigation, precipitation, sap flow and ET data are available for a long period of time allowing knowledge of the long term forcing conditions on the system. This wealth of information was used to calibrate a 1D Richards’ equation model representing the dynamics of the volume monitored via 3D ERT. Information on the soil hydraulic properties was collected from laboratory experiments as well as by time-lapse ERT monitoring of irrigation a few months after the main experiment, when the orange tree had been cut. The results of the calibrated modeling exercise allow the quantification of the soil volume interested by root water uptake. This volume is much smaller (an area less than 2 square meters, 40 cm thick) than generally believed and assumed in the design of classical drip irrigation schemes.