10 FACTORS INFLUENCING CONSUMPTIVE USE OF WATER BY A CROP

Many factors operate singly or in combination to influence the amounts of water consumed by plants. Their effects are not necessarily constant, but the factors may differ with locality and water consumption may fluctuate from year to year. Some effects involve the human factor; others are related to the natural influences of the environment and to the growth characteristics of the plants.

The more important of the natural influences are climate, water supply, soils, and topography. The climatic factors that particularly affect consumptive use are temperature, solar radiation, precipitation, humidity, wind movement, length of growing season, latitude, and sunlight. Data were not available for solar radiation.

1. PRECIPITATION

The amount and rate of precipitation may have some minor effect on the amount of water consumptively used during any summer. Under certain conditions, precipitation may occur as a series of frequent, light showers during the hot summer. Such showers may add little or nothing to the soil moisture for use by the plants through transpiration but do decrease the withdrawal from the stored moisture. Such precipitation may be lost largely by evaporation directly from the surface of the plant foliage and the land surface.

Part of the precipitation from heavy storms may be lost by surface runoff. Other storms may be of such intensity and amount that a large percentage of the moisture will enter the soil and become available for plant transpiration. This available soil moisture may materially reduce the amount of irrigation water needed.

2. TEMPERATURE

The rate of consumptive use of water by crops in any particular locality is probably affected more by temperature, which for long-time periods is a good measure of solar radiation, than by any other factor. Abnormally low temperatures retard plant growth and unusually high temperatures may produce dormancy. Consumptive use may vary widely even in years of equal accumulated temperatures because of deviations from the normal seasonal distribution. Transpiration is influenced not only by temperature but also by the area of leaf surface and the physiologic needs of the plant, both of which are related to stage of maturity.

3. HUMIDITY

Evaporation and transpiration are accelerated on days of low humidity and slowed during periods of high humidity. During periods of low relative humidity, greater rate of use of water by vegetation may be expected.

4. WIND MOVEMENT

Evaporation of water from land and plant surfaces takes place more rapidly when there is moving air than under calm air conditions. Hot, dry winds and other unusual wind conditions during the growing period will affect the amount of water consumptively used. However, there is a limit in the amount of water that can be utilized. As soon as the land surface is dry, evaporation practically stops and transpiration is limited by the ability of the plants to extract and convey the soil moisture through the plants.

5. GROWING SEASON

The growing season, which is tied rather closely to temperature, has a major effect on the seasonal use of water by plants. It is frequently considered to be the period between killing frosts, but for many annual crops, it is shorter than the frost-free period, as such crops are usually planted after frosts are past and mature before they recur.

For most perennial crops, growth starts as soon as the maximum temperature stays well above the freezing point for an extended period of days, and continues throughout the season despite later freezes. Sometimes growth persists after the first so-called killing frost in the fall. In the spring, and to less extent in the fall, daily minimum temperatures may fluctuate several degrees above and below 32° F. for several days before remaining generally above or below the freezing point. The hardier crops survive these fluctuations and continue unharmed during a few hours of subfreezing temperature. In fact, many hardy crops, especially grasses, may mature even though growing season temperatures repeatedly drop below freezing. In southern Arizona and California alfalfa and citrus trees grow throughout the year.

Although the frost-free season may be used as a guide for computing consumptive use, actual dates of planting and harvesting of the crops and average annual dates of the first and last irrigation are important in determining the consumptive irrigation requirements of the crops.

6. LATITUDE AND SUNLIGHT

Although latitude may hardly be called a climatic factor, it does have considerable influence on the rate of consumptive use of water by various plants. Because of the earth’s movement and axial inclination, the hours of daylight during the summer are much greater in the northern latitudes than at the Equator. Since the sun is the source of all energy used in crop growth and evaporation of water, this longer day may allow plant transpiration to continue for a longer period each day and to produce an effect similar to that of lengthening the growing season.

7. AVAILABLE IRRIGATION WATER SUPPLY

All the above-mentioned climatic factors influence the amount of water that potentially can be consumed in a given area. However, there are other factors that also cause important differences in the consumptive use-rates. Naturally, unless water is available from some source (precipitation, natural ground water, or irrigation), there can be no consumptive use. In those areas of the arid and semiarid West where the major source is irrigation, both the quantity and seasonal distribution of the available supply will affect consumptive use. Where water is plentiful and cheap, there is a tendency for farmers to overirrigate. If the soil surface is frequently wet and the resulting evaporation is high, the combined evaporation and transpiration or consumptive use may likewise increase. Also, under more optimum soil moisture conditions, yields of crops such as alfalfa may be higher than average and more water consumed. In irrigating some crops, such as potatoes, water is applied to the field not only for the purpose of supplying the consumptive water needs of the crop but also to help maintain a favorable microclimatic condition.

8. QUALITY OF WATER

Some investigations have shown that the quality of the water supply may have an appreciable effect on consumptive use. Whether or not plants actually transpire more or less if water is highly saline may be debatable. However, if it is necessary to apply additional water to the land to leach the salts down through the soil, more water will probably be lost by evaporation from the soil surface and such loss will be chargeable against the consumptive requirement of the cropped area.

9. SOIL FERTILITY

If a soil is made more fertile through the application of manure or by some other means, the yields may be expected to increase with an accompanying small increase in use of water. However, an increase in fertility of the soil causes a decrease in the amount of water consumed per unit of crop yield.

10. PLANT PESTS AND DISEASES

Where plant pests and diseases seriously affect the natural growth of the plants, it is reasonable to assume that transpiration will likewise decrease. It is recognized that some damage to crops is caused every year by pests and diseases. Ordinarily the losses may not vary greatly from year to year, but in those years when they are unusually severe consumptive use may be lowered materially.