Agricultural Water Management 218 (2019) 1–7

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Agricultural Water Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat

Soybean irrigation requirements and canopy-atmosphere coupling in T

Southern Brazil
Evandro H.F.M. da Silvaa, Alexandre O. Gonçalvesa,b, Rodolfo A. Pereiraa,
⁎
Izael M. Fattori Júniora, Luiz R. Sobenkoa, Fábio R. Marina,
a
University of São Paulo (USP), College of Agriculture “Luiz de Queiroz” (ESALQ), Piracicaba, SP, Brazil
b
Embrapa Soils, Rio de Janeiro, SP, Brazil

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The lack of base information on crop water requirements under tropical conditions is one of the causes for
Crop coefficient inefficient water use and inadequate irrigation management. The crop coefficient (Kc) approach is universally
Water use adopted for scheduling and quantifying the water management and, recently, its relation with the evaporative
Leaf conductance atmosphere demand has been included in this approach to improve the decision-making on irrigation man-
Canopy-atmosphere coupling
agement. In this paper, we measured crop evapotranspiration (ETc) in two experiments as evaporative heat flux
from a centre pivot-irrigated soybean plantations in tropical Brazil to quantify the crop water needs. Irrigation
requirements were determined by comparing ETc with reference evapotranspiration (ETo), derived from FAO-56
(Allen et al., 1998). In this study, the average Kc value obtained was 0.92, which is nearly 20% lower than those
recommended by the FAO-56 (Allen et al., 1998) and varied inversely as a function of ETo. Based on aero-
dynamic and leaf diffusive resistance (rs) data, Ω was computed and presented values relatively high compared
to other crops, which means a relatively poor coupling of soybean canopies to the atmosphere. Throughout both
experiments, the Kc value decreased by up to 44.8% when the ETo increased from 2 to 4 mm d−1, depending on
the phenological phase, indicating the need for taking into account the ETo values when selection the Kc values
for improving the irrigation management in tropical soybean.

1. Introduction inadequate irrigation management. In this sense, crop water con-

Together, Brazil and the USA, currently account for about 75% of
the global soybean crop (Glycine max L.) production. Nearly 34 million
hectares of land are cultivated with soybean, spread out on 14 Brazilian
states, from south to north, with an average yield of 3.4 Mg ha−1. Only
11% of the Brazilian soybean crops are currently irrigated.
Recently, the high international ratings for soybean and the climatic
variability in major producing areas in Brazil have increased the de-
mand for permissions to establish new irrigated soybean fields, thereby
increasing soybean yields in the tropics (Kuss et al., 2008; Garcia y
Garcia et al., 2010; Zhang et al., 2016). The Brazilian National Water
Agency (ANA - Agência Nacional das Águas (2014)) has reported that in
2014, new permissions were given to irrigate more than 28,000 land
hectares of soybean crops under central pivot systems.
Suitable irrigation practices must be established on the basis of how
to use the available water resources more efficiently to achieve higher
yields. The lack of basic information on crop water needs under tropical
conditions is one of the causes for inefficient agricultural water use and
sumption mensuration can be obtained by the product of the reference
evapotranspiration (ETo) and the crop coefficient (Kc), resulting is es-
timated crop evapotranspiration (ETc) (Allen et al., 1998). This ap-
proach has been universally adopted for scheduling and quantifying the
water amount to be applied to the crops and has been supported by
long-term data. In Brazil, the increase in irrigated soybean crops urges
farmers to improve their irrigation management.
This approach has been proven useful for practical purposes, and
several studies have been performed to provide Kc values for global
soybean production (Ortega-Farias et al., 2004; Karam et al., 2005;
Suyker and Verma, 2009; Payero and Irmak, 2013; Kamble et al.,
2013). However, information about Brazilian soybean crops in terms of
irrigation management improvement is still scarce.
Previous studies on coffee, citrus orchards, sugarcane and maize
crops (Marin et al., 2005; Marin and Angelocci, 2011; Nassif et al.,
2014; Marin et al., 2016; Sobenko et al., 2018; Nassif et al., 2019) have
shown that, besides common crop variables influence Kc (e.g. crop
phenology and arrangements, ecophysiology characteristics), the level

⁎
Corresponding author at: Biosystems Engineering Department, Av. Pádua Dias, 11, Piracicaba, SP, 13418-900, Brazil.
E-mail address: fabio.marin@usp.br (F.R. Marin).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2019.03.003
Received 22 October 2018; Received in revised form 26 February 2019; Accepted 1 March 2019
0378-3774/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
E.H.F.M. da Silva, et al.
of ETo during the days prior to irrigation should also be taken into
account.
In this paper, we measured ETc of an irrigated tropical soybean crop
throughout two seasons to a) provide Kc values based on current soy-
bean crops for improving irrigation management, and b) to evaluate to
what degree the Kc values would be affected by atmospheric evapora-
tive demand and to determine the effects of the crop coefficient-re-
ference evapotranspiration approach.
2. Material and methods
Two soybean crop experiments were conducted at the experimental
area of the University of São Paulo (USP), “Luiz de Queiroz” College of
Agriculture (ESALQ), Piracicaba, São Paulo State, Brazil (latitude
22°42′S; longitude 47°30′W; 546 m a.s.l). For experiments 1 (Exp. 1)
and 2 (Exp. 2) were grown from October 2016 to March 2017 and from
December 2017 to April 2018, respectively. According to Köppen
(1931) climate classification, the local climate is Cwa (high-altitude
tropical climate), with rainy summers and dry winters. Annual average
temperature and precipitation are 22 °C and 1280 mm, respectively.
Both experiments were irrigated by centre pivot, sprinklers i-Wob®
UP3® (Senninger Irrigation, Inc.). Irrigation frequency and water
amount were scheduled based on an agrometeorological water balance
model ensuring that soil moisture content exceeded 80% of field ca-
pacity and preventing the formation of a shallow root system that
would lead to a water supply insufficient to match the atmospheric
demand. Effective root depth was assumed to be 0.50 m. For both ex-
periments, the 3-ha experimental field was planted with the soybean
cultivar BRS399-RR at a row spacing of 0.45 m and with 18 seeds per
linear metre, resulting in a plant density of 35.5 plants m−2. The soil
was classified as an Eutric RHodic Ferralic Nitisol with 3.9% organic
matter content, bulk density of 1480 kg m-3, clay texture (sand, 286 g
kg-1; silt, 114 g kg-1; clay, 600 g kg-1) and water contents at field ca-
pacity and permanent wilting point of 0.338 and 0.249 m3 m-3, re-
spectively.
Crop evapotranspiration ETc was determined during the growing
seasons by the surface energy balance using the Bowen ratio (β )
method, based on vertical differences in air temperature ( ΔT ) and va-
pour pressure ( Δea ). The reliability of the method was tested following
the algorithm presented by Perez et al. (1999), as this method can show
some variation. When the variability exceeded 2 h, these periods were
discarded, and interpolations for gap fillings were conducted. Also, data
for the entire day were discarded when periods of such undesirable
variability exceed 2 h.
The Bowen ratio systems were installed in the centre of each ex-
perimental plot, measuring the following weather variables: surface
radiation balance (Rn ) (Kipp & Zone Inc., model NR-Lite2), soil heat
flux (G ) (Hukeseflux Inc., model HFP01), measured at two points
0.05 m below the ground, and vertical gradients of air temperature and
partial vapour pressure (Vaisala Inc., model HMP155), measured
0.80 m between the sensors and 0.20 m above the canopy. Data were
recorded daily at 10-s intervals and stored as 15-min averages by a
data-logger (Campbell Scientific, Inc., model CR1000). Eqs. (1)–(3)
were used to estimate ETc as follows:
es = ( 17.3 T
0.6108 e 237.3 T ) RH (1)
ΔT
β=γ
Δea (2)
Rn − G
ETc =
λ (1 + β ) (3)
where ea is the current water vapour pressure (kPa), T is the air tem-
perature (°C), RH is the relative humidity (decimals), β is the Bowen
ratio, γ is the psychrometric constant (kPa °C−1), ΔT and Δea are air
temperature (°C) and partial vapour pressure difference (kPa) between
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Agricultural Water Management 218 (2019) 1–7
two heights, respectively, ETc is the crop evapotranspiration (mm d−1),
Rn is the surface radiation balance (MJ m-2 d−1), G is the soil heat flux
(MJ m-2 d−1) and λ is the latent heat of vaporisation (MJ m-2 d−1).
Daily reference evapotranspiration ETo was estimated based on the
Penman-Monteith equation as parameterised by Allen et al. (1998),
using weather data collected from an automatic standard weather sta-
tion (Campbell Scientific, Inc., model CR1000 and such sensors) located
near the experimental field.
To evaluate the ecophysiological responses of the crop to the
weather, we measured the diurnal courses of leaf diffusive resistance to
water vapour (rs), which is the inverse of leaf diffusive conductance
(gs = 1/rs), with a well-calibrated cycling porometer (Delta-T Inc.,
model AP4). This was determined during 2 days of the vegetative stage
(V2 and V5) and 3 days of the reproductive stage (R1, R3 and R6) for
Exp. 1 and during 1 day of the vegetative stage (V5) and 2 days of the
reproductive stage (R1 and R2) for Exp. 2. The rs was measured in three
exposed leaves from five different plants from 0800 h to 1800 h (local
time). Boundary lines and regression analyses were made using
SigmaPlot (Systat Software Inc., version 12.0) to obtain the relation-
ships between the upper limit of the scattering in the diagrams and to
indicate the hypothetical response of each independent variable when
the other independent ones are not limiting (Jarvis, 1976; Jones, 1994).
Mean rs values were also used to compute the decoupling factor (Ω),
which was defined by Eq. (4) and described by McNaughton and Jarvis
(1983). The Ω is a useful indicator on how the canopy interacts with the
atmosphere and hence controls the plant transpiration as responding to
weather. Conceptually, Ω can be interpreted by analysis of its extreme
values. As Ω tends to unity (Ω→1 as rs/ra →0), this means that the net
radiation is the main contributor to the evapotranspiration process and
the crop is considered to be decoupled from the atmospheric conditions.
If Ω tends to zero (Ω→0 as rs/ra →∞), it indicates the complete cou-
pling of the crop to the atmosphere, that is, the evapotranspiration
process is greatly influenced by the vapour pressure deficit and the
wind speed (McNaughton and Jarvis, 1983):
1
Ω= ,
γ r
1 + ⎡ (s + γ ) rS ⎤
⎣ a⎦ (4)
where Ω is the decoupling factor (dimensionless), s is the slope of the
saturation vapour pressure curve (kPa), rs is the stomatal resistance to
vapour diffusion measured by the cycling porometer (s m−1) and ra is
the bulk aerodynamic resistance of the soybean (s m-1). The bulk
aerodynamic resistance ra was calculated by Eq. (5) (Jones, 1992). The
parameters displacement of the zero plane (d) and surface roughness
length (zo) of Eq. (5) were estimated as a function of crop height (h),
using Eqs. (6) and (7), as proposed by Stanhill (1969) and Rosenberg
et al. (1983), respectively:
2
⎡ln
ra = ⎣
( ) ⎤⎦
z−d
z0
uk (5)
h0.979
d=
1.425 (6)
h0.997
z0 =
(7)
7.638
−1
where u is the wind speed (m s ), z is the measurement height of u
(m), d is the displacement of the zero plane (m), zo is the surface
roughness length (m), k is the von Kármán constant (0.40) and h is the
crop height (m).
3. Results
Fig. 1 shows the daily variations of ETc and ETo throughout the two
well-irrigated experiments and the duration period of the phenological
stages. In both experiments, irrigation was managed to meet the crop
E.H.F.M. da Silva, et al.
Fig. 1. Daily variation in soybean evapotranspiration (ETc), reference evapotranspiration (ETo) and measured rainfall throughout the experimental period.
water requirements, which were 277 and 378 mm for Exp. 1 and Exp. 2,
respectively. Based on the water balance and the possibility of water
uptake from deeper layers, evapotranspiration in both crops was non-
limited, ensuring maximum ETc rates.
Along the soybean crop of Exp. 1 (Fig. 1A), ETc was systematically
lower than ETo, with average values of 2.57 ± 0.07 and 3.87 ± 0.09 mm
d−1, respectively. For Exp. 1, relative air humidity (RH ) was higher
than 76%, while average air temperature (T ) was 23 °C. Under these
conditions, average ETc was 4.0 mm d−1, reaching a peak of 5.03 mm
d−1, and stayed above 4.0 mm d−1 over a period of 13 days (12% of
total length) in Exp. 1. The Exp. 2 period was relatively warmer, with
average T and RH values of 23.7 °C and 78.6%, respectively; average
values of ETc and ETo were 3.97 ± 0.10 and 3.50 ± 0.07 mm d−1, re-
spectively (Fig. 1B). The ETc in Exp. 2 was generally higher because of
the availability of water associated with a high atmospheric demand
from the prevailing dry air mass, with temperatures ranging from 25 to
35 °C and a mean air relative humidity below 73%. The ETc reached a
peak of 6.49 mm d−1 and remained above 4.0 mm d−1 over a period of
55 days (51% of total length) for Exp. 2.
The ratio between ETc and ETo represents the Kc value and is de-
termined from the slope of the straight line forced to pass through the
origin. When considering the whole data across the entire period of the
two experiments, and separating them by phenological stages, the mean
Kc value of 0.79 ± 0.03, ranging from 0.26 to 1.78 (Fig. 2A). During the
initial stages of the reproductive development, including blooming and
pod development (R1 to R4) the mean Kc value was 1.12 ± 0.03, ran-
ging from 0.63 to 2.06 (Fig. 2C). From the beginning to the end of grain
filling stages (R5 to R6), ETc/ETo ratio was 0.82 ranging from 0.32 to
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Agricultural Water Management 218 (2019) 1–7
1.55 (Fig. 2E). Indeed, the overall mean value of Kc was 0.92 ± 0.02
with a statistically significant (P < 0.001) inverse relationship be-
tween Kc and ETo in both experiments and all phenological phases
analized (Fig. 2B, D and F).
Angular coefficients of linear regression analysis between gs and
weather variables as well as for ETo values were negative for all of
them, but none were statistically significant at 10%. However, gs in
turm responded in a nonlinear manner to air temperature, wind speed,
VPD and solar radiation, as showed by boundary lines in Fig. 3 and
respective equations shown in Table 1.
We found statistically significant (P < 0.001) inverse relationships
between Kc values and ETo (Fig. 2B–D), and based on these we pro-
posed Kc values for different phenological stages and ETo ranges for the
two experiments (Table 2). By comparing the Kc values ranging from
ETo < 2 and ETo > 4 mm d−1, crop water requirements decreased by
44.8, 18.4 and 24.2% for vegetative, reproductive R1 to R4 and R5 to
R6 stages, respectively (Table 2).
The average Ω value was 0.59 at vegetative stage V1. At the vege-
tative stage V2, average Ω values of 0.88 and 0.70 were obtained for
Exp. 1 and Exp. 2, respectively. For later stages, Ω decreased to 0.55 in
average, but still showing a relatively weak canopy-atmosphere cou-
pling level (Table 3).
Fig. 4 shows patterns of hourly variation of gs throughout the two
experimental period and the duration period of the phenological stages.
In both experiments, there was a sharp drop in gs over the last hours of
the day and gs data was remarkable variable along the daylength
mainly in Exp 1 (Fig. 4A). Exp. 1 showed relatively higher average gs
values along the measurements days, excepting for the phenological
E.H.F.M. da Silva, et al.
Fig. 2. Soybean evapotranspiration (ETc , A, C and E) and crop coefficient (Kc, B, D and F), separated by phonological stages, as a function of reference evapo-
transpiration (ETo ).
stage V5.
4. Discussion
The soybean crop Kc values agreed with those reported for the same
climatic conditions such as the Brazilian Southern summer (Doorenbos
and Pruitt, 1977; Allen et al., 1998; Suyker and Verma, 2009; Payero
and Irmak, 2013). However, Kc values found here were nearly 20%
lower than those recommended by the FAO-56 (Allen et al., 1998). The
Kc decreased as ETo increased for both experiments and all phenolo-
gical stages at (P < 0.001) suggesting that keeping the same Kc levels
for irrigation management would imply in water and energy waste for
4
Agricultural Water Management 218 (2019) 1–7
growers, as well as in unnecessary use of natural water reservoirs.
Due to the increase in aerodynamic resistance or stomatal closure, Ω
tends to be higher in vegetation with less roughness because of an in-
crease in the aerodynamic resistance of the canopy. In general, Ω values
showed soybean relatively decoupled to the atmosphere (Table 2)
compared to coffee (Marin et al., 2005), citrus (Marin et al., 2011),
sugarcane (Nassif et al., 2014; Marin et al., 2016; Nassif et al., 2019)
and maize (Sobenko et al., 2018). In those previous papers, we hy-
pothesized that one possible explanation for the decline of Kc with ETo
increases is the high level of canopy-atmosphere coupling found for
those crops. Under such conditions there would be a feed-back between
plants and their immediate aerial environment which may diminish the
E.H.F.M. da Silva, et al. Agricultural Water Management 218 (2019) 1–7

Fig. 3. Relationships between hourly soybean leaf diffusion conductance (gs) and air temperature (A), vapour pressure deficit (VPD, B), wind speed (C) and solar
radiation (D), with hypothetical boundary line fitted for each environmental variable.

dependence of transpiration on stomatal conductance (Jarvis and Table 2

McNaughton, 1986; Steduto et al., 2009). Crop coefficient (Kc) as a function of phenological stage and ranges of reference
However, for soybean, the overall average values of Ω = 0.59, but evapotranspiration (ETo) for soybean crop. Values in parentheses represent
the inverse ETo-Kc relationship was also observed, casting doubt on our standard deviation.
previous hypothesis on gs controlling the crop transpiration as the in- Phenological stage ETo range Kc
verse ETo-Kc relationship occurred regardless of coupling level. For
canopies completely decoupled from the atmosphere, the values of gs Vegetative < 2.0 mm d−1 1.27 [0.47]
2.0 – 4.0 mm d−1 0.78 [0.27]
were higher than the canopy boundary layer conductance (i.e. the in-
> 4.0 mm d−1 0.70 [0.24]
verse of bulk aerodynamic resistance – ra), which means that changes in R1-R4 < 2.0 mm d−1 1.25 [0.41]
gs will have only a slight effect on transpiration rate, and incoming solar 2.0 – 4.0 mm d−1 1.22 [0.25]
radiation would be the primary driver of transpiration. In this case, > 4.0 mm d−1 1.02 [0.26]
R5-R6 < 2.0 mm d−1 0.91 [0.11]
despite stomatal control of transpiration is weaker than form highly
2.0 – 4.0 mm d−1 0.81 [0.12]
coupled canopies, for Ω = 0.59 as found herein, it is reasonable to > 4.0 mm d−1 0.69 [0.17]
accept gs playing some role on the crop transpiration control (Meinzer
et al., 1997).
Meyer and Green (1981) stated that soybean gs at approximately the however, reached peak values with some optimum combination values
same time each day are subject to a considerable amount of variability for these weather variables, rapidly decreasing thereafter as the atmo-
even for very high level of available soil water. This agrees with gs sphere evaporative demand increases (Teare and Kanemasu, 1972;
measuments made for other crops (e.g. Rochette et al., 1991; Angelocci Sionit and Kramer, 1976; Choudhury, 1983; OosteRHuis and Walker,
et al., 2004), as well as with our dataset. The maximum gs values, 1987; Buttery et al. (1993)). Denmead and Shaw (1962) and Grantz and

Table 1
Regression equations among soybean leaf diffusion conductance (gs, cm s−1) and air temperature (T, ºC), vapour pressure deficit (VPD, kPa), wind speed (u,
m s−1) and solar radiation (Rn, W m-2).
Variable Equation R2 P value

T ⎡−0.5 T − 29.3918
2 0.867 < 0.001
⎢
gS = 0.7493 + 2.0975e⎣
( 2.8571 ) ⎤⎥⎦
VPD gS = −0.1873 + 6.5046VPD − 3.7922VPD 2 + 0.5745VPD3 0.897 < 0.001
u gS = −0.6729 + 3.9858u − 1.2171u2 + 0.096u3 0.977 < 0.001
Rn gS = 0.758 + 0.0094Rn − 1.023x10−5Rn2 + 2.6794x10−9Rn3 0.821 < 0.001

5
E.H.F.M. da Silva, et al. Agricultural Water Management 218 (2019) 1–7

Table 3 Jarvis, 1983).

Stomatal resistance (rs), bulk aerodynamic resistance (ra) and decoupling factor Based on the relationships among gs and weather variables (Fig. 3),
(Ω ) for soybean crop. we selected 30.3 °C, 1.1 kPa, 2.12 m s−1 and 644 W m-2, respectively,
Exp. 1 Exp. 2 for air temperature, VPD, wind speed and solar radiation as corre-
sponding values for the highest gs. Estimating ETo (Allen et al., 1998)
DOYa Hour rs ra Ω DOY Hour rs ra Ω from these values, a daily rate of 5.17 mm d−1 was found. These esti-
(s cm−1) (s cm−1)
mations were based on the assumption that net radiation was 50% of
332 08h00 0.14 1.45 0.97 25 10h00 0.97 0.47 0.68 incoming solar radiation and that the photoperiod was 12 h. Boundary
09h00 0.29 0.70 0.90 12h00 0.87 0.50 0.74 functions showed gs decreases when the atmospheric demand is high,
10h00 0.82 0.72 0.79 14h00 0.73 0.76 0.84 corroborating the hypothesis that soybean plants partially control
11h00 0.85 0.76 0.81 16h00 0.59 0.30 0.73 transpiration rates as ETo increases.
12h00 0.46 0.76 0.88 18h00 2.20 0.55 0.52
14h00 0.34 0.47 0.85 40 08h00 2.04 0.53 0.55
Allen et al. (1998) have claimed that Kc values must be used under
15h00 0.14 1.38 0.96 09h00 1.97 0.37 0.58 standard climatic conditions (sub-humid climate, minimum relative
16h00 0.33 0.64 0.86 11h00 2.70 0.38 0.48 humidity of 45% and wind speeds averaging 2 m s−1) and that varia-
349 08h00 1.03 0.22 0.40 14h00 4.01 0.33 0.37 tions in wind speed may alter aerodynamic resistance and, hence, Kc.
10h00 1.66 0.19 0.29 17h00 6.86 0.41 0.50
They also pointed out that Kc tends to increase under conditions of high
11h00 1.03 0.23 0.45 53 09h00 1.18 0.52 0.65
12h00 1.10 0.19 0.37 10h00 1.27 0.35 0.58 wind speed and air temperatures, and low relative humidity. Our data
14h00 1.26 0.20 0.38 12h00 1.74 0.26 0.52 showed that high air temperature, VPD and wind speed tended to re-
15h00 1.11 0.19 0.39 14h00 1.23 0.26 0.55 strict soybean transpiration, along with changing Kc values as ETo
16h00 1.20 0.20 0.39 16h00 3.11 0.17 0.35 varied. Yet, we measured ETc throughout two irrigated soybean cycles
17h00 2.00 0.21 0.28 18h00 6.08 0.23 0.22
to update Kc values specifically for Brazilian cultivars and those dataset
18h00 2.73 0.19 0.19
4 09h00 0.73 0.60 0.73 suggested that the irrigation management procedures suggested by
10h00 0.66 0.39 0.68 Allen et al. (1998) should be updated, as the use of conventional Kc
11h00 0.68 0.27 0.60 values proposed by Allen et al. (1998) might lead to a crop water re-
12h00 0.46 0.23 0.66
quirement higher than necessary.
13 09h00 0.63 0.19 0.51
10h00 0.78 0.23 0.50
11h00 0.77 0.34 0.62
12h00 0.50 0.34 0.71 5. Conclusions
14h00 0.36 0.32 0.79
15h00 0.41 0.24 0.70
We measured ETc along two irrigated soybean crop plots to update
16h00 0.70 0.55 0.73
17h00 0.97 0.43 0.61 Kc values for irrigation management in accordance with the current
37 11h00 0.42 1.29 0.92 technologies and practices in Southern Brazil and discussed the para-
12h00 0.38 2.91 0.92 digm involving the crop coefficient-reference evapotranspiration ap-
13h00 0.30 5.19 0.98
proach. The average Kc value obtained was 0.92, and the maximum
15h00 0.37 2.04 0.95
16h00 0.43 0.38 0.78
average value of 1.12 was found between the reproductive stages R1
17h00 1.36 2.70 0.62 and R4, representing a value 20% lower than those suggested by Allen
18h00 1.69 0.31 0.38 et al. (1998).
a
The Kc values decreased as ETo at statiscally significant values
DOY = day of year with porometric measurements. (P < 0.001) for both experiment and all phenological stages. Soybean
leaves reduced the stomatal conductance under high air temperature,
Zeiger (1986) reported that with high atmospheric water demand, even wind speed, VPD and, mainly, solar radiation, even with high soil water
at a high soil water content, the relationship between gs and meteor- availability. Based on these results, we proposed that the Kc re-
ological variables demonstrated that leaves restrict water loss mainly commendation for practical purposes should take into account the ETo
through stomatal closure. Therefore, the relationship between ETc and values of the previous days before irrigation, besides the aspects already
ETo seems to be due to an increase in inner resistance to water transport suggested by Allen et al. (1998) for estimating the soybean water re-
in plants when subjected to conditions of high atmospheric demand for queriments.
water due to an opposing tendency for transpiration and stomatal
movement in relation to increased free-air VPD (McNaughton and

Fig. 4. Hourly variation of measured leaf diffusion conductance (gs) in soybean experiments 1 (A) and 2 (B).

6
E.H.F.M. da Silva, et al. Agricultural Water Management 218 (2019) 1–7

Acknowledgements the atmosphere of a citrus orchard in Southern Brazil. Agric. Water Manag. 98,
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Marin, F.R., Angelocci, L.R., Righi, E.Z., Sentelhas, P.C., 2005. Evapotranspiration and
We thank the Research Foundation of the State of São Paulo irrigation requirements of a coffee plantation in Southern Brazil. Exp. Agric. 41 (02),
(FAPESP grants 2017/23468-9, 2015/25702-3, 2017/20925-0), the 187–197.
Brazilian Research Council (CNPq grant 301424/2015, 401662/2016, Marin, F.R., Angelocci, L.R., Nassif, D.S., Costa, L.G., Vianna, M.S., Carvalho, K.S., 2016.
Crop coefficient changes with reference evapotranspiration for highly canopy-at-
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