MODELING WATER RELATIONS OF HORTICULTURAL CROPS - A REVIEW

This paper introduces the basic principles of plant water relations mo delling, and reviews some examples of application to horticultural cro ps. Water relations models are essential components of all crop models because of the critical role that water status has in determining gro wth, productivity and produce quality. The importance of water to hort icultural crops is particularly great because most horticultural produ ce is sold by weight, with water being the major component, so there i s often a marked premium in ensuring that water content is optimised, often through precise control of irrigation. After providing a theoret ical background to plant water relations models, the main models for d escribing and predicting both water flow through plants, and the proce sses of water uptake from the soil and evaporative loss to the atmosph ere are described. The final section then brings together this informa tion in some models that attempt to show how models can either provide insight into the nature of the interactions between the various physi ological processes involved in the control of plant water status or wh ich can be used to investigate the optimal plant responses in water li mited situations. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.