Elsevier

Field Crops Research

Volume 92, Issues 2–3, 14 June 2005, Pages 185-202
Field Crops Research

Water relations in sugarcane and response to water deficits

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2005.01.023Get rights and content

Abstract

Knowledge of water relations is fundamental to improved crop management in regions where irrigation is practiced or where dry conditions cannot be avoided. The objective of this review was to assess where knowledge of sugarcane water relations must be strengthened in order for progress to be made in irrigation management as well as genetic improvement and general management response to climate as well as plant and soil resources. Although past research in sugarcane water relations has been piecemeal, at least some data are available for most aspects. Knowledge about evapotranspiration in sugarcane has advanced recently to allow estimates of daily water use to be obtained from hourly weather records. Evaporation from a wider range of surface conditions (mulched or lodged crops, different row configurations) needs to be determined. Physiological water stress thresholds for irrigation have been defined for a limited range of cultivars so that irrigation can be applied differentially for expansive growth and for sucrose accumulation. This work needs to be tested across a wider range of cultivars and conditions. Manipulation of dry matter partitioning through careful timing and severity water stress clearly has large potential benefits. The mechanisms for enhanced partitioning to sucrose are documented but models need to be developed and tested to transfer this knowledge to practical irrigation management for increasing sucrose content. Responses to water stress in root and leaf conductances varied considerably between the few genotypes considered. Further research on 13C discrimination is warranted after reports of genetic variation in this trait. Osmoregulation, on the other hand, appears not to vary greatly amongst cultivars. Control of stomatal aperture by chemical signals from roots could apply to both ripening processes and to limited growth in compacted soils. This needs to be followed up.

Introduction

In many regions of the world where sugarcane is grown (mainly in the tropics and to a lesser extent in the sub-tropics) water is limiting for cane production. About 60% of sugar produced from cane in Australia requires some form of irrigation. About 40% of the South African crop depends on irrigation and in some countries cane cannot be grown without irrigation (Swaziland and Sudan, for example). Knowledge of water relations is fundamental to improved crop management in these regions. Even where irrigation is not available, knowledge of crop water relations could assist in breeding programs where drought resistance may be an important trait for selection. Such knowledge also underpins farm management, which aims to ensure that water stress is minimised during critical growth phases, but some stress occurs during ripening to maximise sucrose production.

Water use efficiency in irrigation schemes is likely to benefit most from improved knowledge of sugarcane water relations and this review was compiled mainly with this in mind. Pressure on cane growers to use water more efficiently is mounting in many countries as communities become more conscious of past and current impacts of irrigation schemes on the environment, and demands for urban and industrial uses of water increase. It is in the interests of irrigators, environmental managers and the community in general to ensure that crop production remains profitable while water is used more sparingly and drainage and runoff are reduced to a minimum. The objective of this review was, therefore, to utilise information in the literature to assess where knowledge of sugarcane water relations must be strengthened in order for progress to be made in irrigation management, as well as genetic improvement and general management response to climate as well as plant and soil resources.

The role of roots in plant water relations will not be covered since this is the subject of another paper in this issue (Smith et al., 2005).

Section snippets

Water relations in sugarcane

Water used or required by the crop is governed largely by energy exchanges at the cropped surface and internal energy gradients in the soil, plant and atmosphere continuum. Combined evaporation from the soil surface and transpiration through stomata, i.e. evapotranspiration, is many times (about 100 times) greater than water retained by the crop. This section deals with the energy balance and controls of water flow through the plant in order to provide background to important issues, such as

Water stress and growth and development

The energy status of water in the plant resulting from energy exchanges at the leaf surface and internal plant water relations is a useful indicator of the plant's water status. However, as shown above, some plant responses are dependent more on chemical signals or symplast volume rather than the free energy of water. This section deals with responses in expansive growth to water stress, expressed in energy terms or simply as depleted volume of available water stored in the soil (soil water

Photosynthesis, partitioning and water stress

The plant has to balance the need to conserve water and to assimilate CO2 using controls on leaf area and diffusion of CO2 and water vapour through stomata. Transpiration and dry matter accumulation are linked to the extent that both depend on gaseous exchange through stomata. However, net photosynthesis and dry matter accumulation also depend on metabolic processes that may respond to water stress differently to the diffusion process. This section compares the effects of water stress on

Ripeners and water stress

Dry matter partitioning is altered by ripeners in a manner similar to water stress. For example, the herbicide Fusilade Super (Fluazifop-butyl) inhibits de novo synthesis of fatty acids and in doing so disrupts formation of cell structures requiring fatty acids or lipids (Gronwald, 1991). Donaldson and van Staden (1995) analysed the response of sugarcane to Fusilade, with and without water stress. In well-watered cane, the production of new leaves was reduced by Fusilade but the total area per

Irrigation management

Knowledge of water relations in sugarcane could be used more effectively in irrigation management. It is understandable that growers with adequate water supplies do not want to see their crops under any degree of stress. However, sugarcane can withstand some degree of water stress without affecting biomass and sucrose accumulation. From the foregoing discussion, it is clear that expansive growth is highly sensitive to water stress and is probably unavoidable in many situations even if

Conclusions

Although past research in sugarcane water relations has been piecemeal, at least some data are available for most aspects of the subject. However, many critical areas of knowledge have been covered by only one or two publications. One would like to see more than one paper on crop water demand based on crop factors and reference evaporation, for example. The Hawaiian work (David Grantz, Frederick Meinzer and co-workers) came up with some new ideas, which are yet to be followed up. Some detailed

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