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Correcting soil water balance calculations for dew, fog, and light rainfall

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Abstract

In Mediterranean climates, adoption and use of the ET-based scheduling method is limited to regions characterized by considerable contributions to evapotranspiration from fog interception, dew, and light rainfall. While the crop evapotranspiration is often accurately estimated, the water balance is frequently in error because a considerable portion of the energy expended is used to vaporize water from the plant surfaces rather from inside the leaves (i.e., transpiration). Growers in regions with considerable fog, dew, and light rainfall are hesitant to use ET-based scheduling because the cumulative crop evapotranspiration between irrigations is often considerably higher than the soil water depletion. A correction for these surface contributions is clearly needed to improve the water balance calculations and to enhance adoption of the ET-based scheduling method. In this paper, we present a simple, practical method to estimate the contribution of fog interception, dew, and light rainfall to daily crop evapotranspiration, and we show how to use the method to improve water balance calculations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Production, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Avda. Complutense s/n, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    R. Moratiel

  2. CEIGRAM, Centro de Estudios e Investigación para la Gestión de Riesgos Agrarios y Medioambientales, C/Senda del Rey 13, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    R. Moratiel

  3. Department of Economics and Woody Plants (DESA), University of Sassari, 07100, Sassari, Italy

    D. Spano

  4. Department Di Colure Arbore, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

    P. Nicolosi

  5. Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    R. L. Snyder

Authors
  1. R. Moratiel
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  2. D. Spano
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  3. P. Nicolosi
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  4. R. L. Snyder
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. Moratiel.

Additional information

Communicated by A. Kassam.

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Moratiel, R., Spano, D., Nicolosi, P. et al. Correcting soil water balance calculations for dew, fog, and light rainfall. Irrig Sci 31, 423–429 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-011-0320-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-011-0320-2

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