Evaluation of crop water status of melon plants in tropical semi-arid climate using thermal imaging

Abstract

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to analyze the feasibility of using thermal images to estimate the water status of melon plants (Cucumis melo L.) in tropical semi-arid climates. The study was conducted in a randomized block design with a split-plot arrangement. The plots comprised of soil cover (with and without mulching), and subplots were constructed using five irrigation regimes (120, 100, 80, 60, and 40% crop evapotranspiration), with five replicates. The following variables were evaluated: canopy temperature (Tcanopy), leaf water potential, air temperature (Tair), soil moisture, crop yield, and thermal index (ΔT), which is defined as the difference between Tcanopy and Tair. ΔT exhibited high correlations with crop yield and water consumption, indicating that thermography is an efficient tool for identifying the water status of melon plants, which could be employed for proper irrigation scheduling under tropical semi-arid scenarios. Moreover, thermal images identified the beneficial effects of soil cover on leaf water status and crop yield, primarily under moderate deficit irrigation. These results demonstrate that mulching is essential for increasing melon yield and water productivity in tropical regions.

Plant phenotyping relevance

メロンの水分状態という植物生理形質を熱画像から推定する実現可能性を評価し、熱指標と収量・水消費との相関で手法を検証しているため、熱画像法が中心的である。

Code and data availability

The article describes thermal imaging measurements of melon canopy temperature and derived ΔT indices, but no blocks contain any data availability statement, public dataset deposit, thermal image repository, or author analysis code with a public URL. All URLs in the text are citations to prior work or generic agency/in

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