Studying and modelling winter dormancy in olive trees
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Author
López-Bernal, Álvaro
Testi, Luca
Orgaz, Francisco
Villalobos, Francisco J.
Publication date
2019-10-03ISSN
0168-1923
Abstract
The abundance of scientific papers dealing with olive reproductive phenology contrasts with the scarce information available in relation to the winter dormant state of olive vegetative structures. In this study, three experiments with young olive trees were performed in Southern Spain, aiming to provide insight into some features of the winter rest period in this evergreen species. Experiment 1 evaluated the environmental cues triggering dormancy induction by measuring leaf appearance rates in trees subjected to different conditions of temperature and daylength over the course of the 2012 autumn. In Experiment 2, several sets of plants were placed into a greenhouse at different dates along the 2013/2014 winter, testing the ability of dormant plants to resume growth upon the return of favourable temperatures. Finally, Experiment 3 was carried out during the autumns of 2016 and 2017 in two locations, and was devoted to assess differences between five cultivars in the onset of dormancy under natural conditions. Our findings revealed that dormancy induction is not controlled by photoperiod, but by low temperatures. The subsequent winter rest state seems to be easily reversed after 1–2 weeks of exposure to warm conditions, irrespective of the initial date of exposure. With regard to cultivar variability, differences in the timing of growth cessation was found to be rather small. Finally, two simple models for predicting the onset of dormancy based on the accumulation of a certain amount of chilling (either considering or not a reversal of chilling by warm temperatures) are presented. Calibration and validation was performed with independent datasets from Experiments 1, 2 and 3. Validation tests highlighted the reliability of both models in reproducing the date of growth cessation.
Document Type
Article
Document version
Accepted version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
633 - Field crops and their production
Pages
32
Publisher
Elsevier
Is part of
Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
Citation
López-Bernal, Álvaro, Omar García-Tejera, Luca Testi, Francisco Orgaz, and Francisco J. Villalobos. 2020. "Studying And Modelling Winter Dormancy In Olive Trees". Agricultural And Forest Meteorology 280: 107776. doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.107776.
Grant agreement number
MICINN/Programa Nacional de Proyectos de investigación Fundamental/AGL2010-20766/ES/Modelización de la transpiración de olivo y almendro en condiciones de déficit hídrico/
MINECO/Programa Estatal de I+D+I orientada a los retos de la sociedad/AGL2015-69822-R/ES/Simulación de la productividad del olivo: Calibración de cultivares y adaptación a nuevas areas y condiciones ambientales/
EC/H2020/652615/EU/SUstainable and Resilient agriculture for food and non-food systems/FACCE SURPLUS
MINECO/Programa Estatal de I+D+I orientada a los retos de la sociedad/PCIN-2015-259/ES/SISTEMA DE TOMA DE DECISIONES PARA EL MANEJO DEL AGUA EN LA AGRICULTURA MEDIANTE SENSORES REMOTOS Y DE CAMPO/
Program
Ús Eficient de l'Aigua en Agricultura
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- ARTICLES CIENTÍFICS [2685]
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/