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Agriculture
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Sustainable Agricultural Water Management in Mediterranean Environments
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Sustainable Agricultural Water Management in Mediterranean Environments

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 8515

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ivan Francisco Garcia Tejero

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Andalusian Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training (IFAPA), Granada, Spain
Interests: water stress; crop physiology; deficit-irrigation strategies; crop-water monitoring; soil conservation; conservation agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Victor Hugo Durán-Zuazo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Andalusian Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training (IFAPA), Granada, Spain
Interests: water stress; crop physiology; deficit-irrigation strategies; crop-water monitoring; soil conservation; conservation agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The water resources for irrigated agriculture are becoming scarce in arid and semi-arid Mediterranean regions which is exacerbated by climate change, which impacts agricultural sustainability and food security. This tendency raise concern, highlighting the urgency for the implementation of sustainable agricultural water management in this region. Mediterranean agriculture has to be adapted to water scarcity scenarios by water-saving strategies, singularly by increasing water productivity, enhancing water-use efficiency, and controlling the evapotranspiration process. The development of research on the exploitation of plant physiological water-saving potential for increasing the resilience of irrigated crops will be crucial under further adverse climatic conditions.

This Special Issue will focus on sustainable water savings, water stress management, water-use efficiency, advanced irrigation tools, advanced plant physiological response to water stress, evapotranspiration and modeling, particularly in Mediterranean arid, semi-arid and drought-prone areas. We are pleased to invite you to submit manuscripts in “Sustainable Agricultural Water Management in Mediterranean Environments”, which reviews current challenges and discusses approaches and opportunities for the development of Mediterranean water-saving agriculture.

The present SI welcomes original research articles, perspective articles, reviews, mini-reviews, and meta-analysis studies.

Dr. Ivan Francisco Garcia Tejero
Dr. Victor Hugo Durán-Zuazo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • agricultural water management
  • deficit irrigation
  • climate change
  • Mediterranean basin
  • plant water stress
  • sustainable irrigation systems
  • water scarcity
  • water-use efficiency
  • precision agriculture
  • remote sensing

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 4020 KiB  
Article
Impact of Deficit Irrigation Strategies Using Saline Water on Soil and Peach Tree Yield in an Arid Region of Tunisia
by Ines Toumi, Mohamed Ghrab, Olfa Zarrouk and Kamel Nagaz
Agriculture 2024, 14(3), 377; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14030377 - 27 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1029
Abstract
Sustainable fruit orchard development in arid areas is severely affected by the scarcity of fresh water. To mitigate the lack of fresh water, the use of low-quality water for irrigation is becoming a common practice in several margin areas. However, salinity is considered [...] Read more.
Sustainable fruit orchard development in arid areas is severely affected by the scarcity of fresh water. To mitigate the lack of fresh water, the use of low-quality water for irrigation is becoming a common practice in several margin areas. However, salinity is considered one of the most important environmental constraints limiting the successful crop production. Therefore, the effects of deficit irrigation strategies using saline water (3.1 dS m−1) on soil water content, soil salinity, and yield of commercial peach orchard were investigated. Three irrigation treatments were considered: a Control, full irrigated (FI); and partial root-zone drying (PRD50); and deficit irrigation (DI) strategies irrigated at 50% ETc. These levels of water supply allowed for contrasting watering conditions with clear distinction between irrigation treatments. The differential pattern in soil moisture was accompanied by that of soil salinity with an increase in all FI treatments (16–25%). The results indicated that soil salinity increased with increasing water supply and evaporative demand during the growing season from January (3.2 dS m−1) to August (6.6 dS m−1). Deficit irrigation strategies (DI, PRD50) induced more soil salinity along the row emitter compared to the Control due to insufficient leaching fractions. By the end of the growing season, the soil salinity under long-term saline drip irrigation remained stable (5.3–5.7 dS m−1). An efficient leaching action seemed to be guaranteed by rainfall and facilitated by sandy soil texture, as well as the high evaporative demand and the important salt quantity supplied, which maintain the deficit irrigation strategies as valuable tools for water saving and improving water productivity. The significant water saving of 50% of water requirements induced a fruit yield loss of 20%. For this reason, DI and PRD50 could be reasonable irrigation management tools for saving water and controlling soil salinity in arid areas and on deep sandy soil. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Agricultural Water Management in Mediterranean Environments)
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14 pages, 2099 KiB  
Article
Leaf Carbon and Water Isotopes Correlate with Leaf Hydraulic Traits in Three Solanum Species (S. peruvianum, S. lycopersicum and S. chilense)
by Diego Barrera-Ayala, Gerardo Tapia and Juan Pedro Ferrio
Agriculture 2023, 13(3), 525; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13030525 - 22 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1252
Abstract
Leaf hydraulic conductance (KLeaf) is a measure of the efficiency of water transport through the leaf, which determines physiological parameters such as stomatal conductance, photosynthesis and transpiration rates. One key anatomical structure that supports KLeaf is leaf venation, which [...] Read more.
Leaf hydraulic conductance (KLeaf) is a measure of the efficiency of water transport through the leaf, which determines physiological parameters such as stomatal conductance, photosynthesis and transpiration rates. One key anatomical structure that supports KLeaf is leaf venation, which could be subject to evolutionary pressure in dry environments. In this context, it is useful to assess these traits in species from arid climates such as S. peruvianum and S. chilense, in order to determine their hydraulic strategy and potential aptitude for the improvement of domestic tomato (S. lycopersicum). In this work, we measured KLeaf, vein density, together with leaf water isotope composition (δ18O, δ2H) and leaf carbon isotope composition (δ13C), from which we derived proxies for outside-vein hydraulic resistance (Rox) and intrinsic water use efficiency (WUEi), respectively. The two wild species showed contrasting hydraulic strategies, with S. chilense performing as a water-spender, whereas S. peruvianum showed a water-saving strategy. Interestingly, S. lycopersicum was rather conservative, and showed the highest WUEi. The low water transport capacity of S. peruvianum was not explained by vein density traits, but was related with the effective pathlength L, an isotope-derived proxy for Rox. The low WUEi of S. peruvianum suggest strong photosynthetic limitations. Our results show a wide diversity in water-use strategies in the genus, encouraging a detailed characterization of wild relatives. From a methodological point of view, we provide evidence supporting the use of water isotopes to assess changes in mesophyll hydraulic conductance, not attributable to vein density. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Agricultural Water Management in Mediterranean Environments)
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14 pages, 23038 KiB  
Article
Effect of Water Stress on the Yield of Indeterminate-Growth Green Bean Cultivars (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) during the Autumn Cycle in Southern Spain
by Munia Alomari-Mheidat, María José Martín-Palomo, Pedro Castro-Valdecantos, Noemi Medina-Zurita, Alfonso Moriana and Mireia Corell
Agriculture 2023, 13(1), 46; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13010046 - 23 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1630
Abstract
Common bean is typically cultivated in the Mediterranean basin, an area where water scarcity could limit yield. This species has a broad range of food uses (seed or pod) and very diverse growth patterns (indeterminate or determinate), which hinders any deficit irrigation strategy. [...] Read more.
Common bean is typically cultivated in the Mediterranean basin, an area where water scarcity could limit yield. This species has a broad range of food uses (seed or pod) and very diverse growth patterns (indeterminate or determinate), which hinders any deficit irrigation strategy. The aim of this work was to evaluate the response of the vegetative and reproductive growth stages to water stress in beans of indeterminate habit. During two consecutive Autumn seasons (2020 and 2021), two cultivars of green bean were grown in a greenhouse in Seville (Spain). The experimental design was a split plot with four replications. One of the factors considered was the cultivars Helda, and Perfección Blanca; and the other was the irrigation strategy: a control treatment, which received 100% of crop evapotranspiration, and a regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) treatment, with 30% of the water applied to the control. In both seasons, significant differences were found between cultivars, but irrigation only reduced branch development around 50%. Reproductive growth was not markedly affected, although a clear diminishing trend of approximately 25% was measured in P. Pod length and the number of non-commercial pods were not importantly impacted by irrigation in any of the cultivars. Moderate water stress conditions did not reduce the quality and quantity of the yield. Therefore, the current irrigation strategy could increase water savings with low or no yield reduction. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Agricultural Water Management in Mediterranean Environments)
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Review

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27 pages, 2357 KiB  
Review
Irrigation Alternatives for Avocado (Persea americana Mill.) in the Mediterranean Subtropical Region in the Context of Climate Change: A Review
by Belén Cárceles Rodríguez, Víctor Hugo Durán Zuazo, Dionisio Franco Tarifa, Simón Cuadros Tavira, Pedro Cermeño Sacristan and Iván Francisco García-Tejero
Agriculture 2023, 13(5), 1049; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13051049 - 12 May 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3906
Abstract
Due to congenital features, avocado (Persea americana Mill.) trees are substantial water users relative to other fruit trees. The current growing deficiency of water resources, especially in arid and semi-arid avocado-producing areas, has led to the demand for more sustainable water-saving measures. [...] Read more.
Due to congenital features, avocado (Persea americana Mill.) trees are substantial water users relative to other fruit trees. The current growing deficiency of water resources, especially in arid and semi-arid avocado-producing areas, has led to the demand for more sustainable water-saving measures. The objective of this review was to analyze the role of deficit irrigation as a strategy to face climate change and water scarcity through achieving efficiency, saving water, and maximizing the benefits that could be achieved at the level of the irrigated agricultural system. Particular attention is devoted to studies performed in the subtropical Mediterranean climate, in which irrigated avocado orchards are common. These studies analyzed irrigation demand, deficit irrigation, and determination of water status through physiological parameters, leading to possible sustainable irrigation programs for avocado in the context of water shortage scenarios. Through these insights, we conclude that under the current climatic circumstances with respect to available water resources, avocado farming requires sustainable resilience strategies to reduce irrigation water consumption without affecting the yield and quality of the fruits. Water stress inevitably affects the physiological processes that determine yield. Therefore, an admissible yield loss is required with smaller fruits and water savings made through deficit irrigation strategies. In addition, modern consumers tend to prefer foods based on sustainability, i.e., there is a high demand for socially responsible and environmentally friendly products. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Agricultural Water Management in Mediterranean Environments)
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