Exploring VIS/NIR reflectance indices for the estimation of water status in highbush blueberry plants grown under full and deficit irrigation

Abstract Remote sensing based on visible and near infrared (VIS/NIR) reflectance is being recognized as a promising option to estimate water status in crops. In this research, we explored the relationship between the midday leaf water potential (Ψ MD ) and stomatal conductance ( g s ) with the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the water index (WI) in leaves of blueberry shrubs subjected to two irrigation treatments based on crop evapotranspiration (ETc): mild water deficit (60% of ETc) and full-irrigation (100% of ETc). Moreover, the impact of the irrigation doses on photosynthesis as well as on fruit yield and quality was assessed. Noteworthy, we detected positive correlations between Ψ MD with NDVI (R 2  = 0.61 ** ; P 2  = 0.60 ** , P g s was positively related to NDVI (R 2  = 0.58 ** , P 2  = 0.69 ** , P