Field sugarcane transpiration based on sap flow measurements and root water uptake simulations: Case study on Tanegashima Island, Japan

Abstract In agriculture, soil evaporation is considered a loss of water, and crop transpiration is a crucial factor affecting crop growth and yield. Although there have been numerous studies on evapotranspiration (ET) on farmland, only a few have been conducted on field crop transpiration because of the difficulties in the direct measurement of transpiration and in separate evaluation of evaporation and transpiration under field conditions. In this study, we used the heat-pulse method to measure the sap velocity in sugarcane stems to evaluate field transpiration during summer at the study site on Tanegashima Island (at about 31° N) in Japan. The reference crop ET was determined by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Penman–Monteith method from on-site meteorological data and was compared with the measured transpiration. The daily transpiration in August ranged from 3.3 mm d−1 to 6.6 mm d−1; the corresponding sap flow varied from 0.27 L d−1 to 0.55 L d−1 per stalk. The daily analysis of ET showed that a standard value of 1.25 for the crop coefficient presented by the FAO is acceptable as the crop coefficient for the mid-season growth stage of sugarcane in the study site. Numerical simulations of Richards equation with the sink term were conducted to examine the response of root water uptake to atmospheric transpiration demand throughout 20 consecutive clear and dry days in August. The decrease in the soil moisture in the root zone depends on the transpiration demand during daytime, and soil moisture is redistributed and recovered during the nighttime. The hourly numerical results in August support a standard value of 1.20 for the basal crop coefficient in the mid-season growth stage, as proposed by FAO. The simulations showed that roots extract water preferentially from the deep and wet soil layers to meet the transpiration demand; transpiration predicted from the sink term agreed well with the actual transpiration measured by the heat-pulse method. Therefore, the numerical analysis of soil moisture dynamics under the atmospheric transpiration demand based on the reference crop ET can be an effective tool to evaluate field sugarcane water consumption.