Abstract
High environmental variability within a valley challenges fruit production in mountain systems and requires site-specific irrigation management. This study evaluates the effects of altitude (480 m vs. 1030 m a.s.l.) and irrigation strategies (regulated deficit irrigation, RDI, vs. conventional farmer-managed irrigation, FRM) on sweet cherry trees (Prunus avium L.) in the Jerte Valley, Spain, focusing on tree water status, vegetative growth, and fruit quality. Results showed that altitude significantly impacted meteorological variables, tree water needs and water status, phenology, and fruit growth. Trees at 1030 m, under cooler, more humid conditions, exhibited a longer fruit development and less negative values of stem and trunk water potential (>-1.3 MPa), resulting in larger fruit (50% of the cherries were larger than 28 mm) compared to those at 480 m (hotter and drier environment), where fruit grew faster and high evaporative demand led to water stress (water potential below -2.0 MPa) and smaller fruit (50% of the cherries had diameters between 24 and 26 mm). RDI maintained better tree water status and enhanced fruit size, particularly at lower altitudes. Soil water content and stomatal conductance varied by altitude and irrigation treatment, with RDI helping to mitigate water deficit stress in both situations. This research highlights the importance of altitude and irrigation strategy in determining the sustainability and resilience of sweet cherry orchards under climate change. Precision irrigation, particularly RDI, offers a viable strategy to optimize water use while improving harvest value in mountain fruit systems.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 12
Claim · model-written summary
Altitude significantly affected tree water needs and water status, phenology and fruit growth.
- Taxon
- sweet cherry tree
Prunus aviumt0 - Outcome
- tree water needs and water status, phenology, and fruit growthe0
- Setting
- altitudee0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“altitude significantly impacted meteorological variables, tree water needs and water status, phenology, and fruit growth”
t0“sweet cherry tree water status”
Claim · model-written summary
Trees at 1030 m had longer fruit development than those at 480 m.
- Taxon
- sweet cherry treePrunus aviumt0
- Outcome
- fruit developmente0
- Direction
- longere0
- Comparator
- 480 me0
- Setting
- 1030 me0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Trees at 1030 m, under cooler, more humid conditions, exhibited a longer fruit development and less negative values of stem and trunk water potential (>-1.3 MPa), resulting in larger fruit (50% of the cherries were larger than 28 mm) compared to those at 480 m”
t0“sweet cherry tree water status”
Claim · model-written summary
Trees at 1030 m had less negative stem and trunk water potential, above -1.3 MPa, than trees at 480 m.
- Taxon
- sweet cherry treePrunus aviumt0
- Outcome
- stem and trunk water potentiale0
- Direction
- less negativee0
- Value
- >-1.3 MPae0
- Comparator
- 480 me0
- Setting
- 1030 me0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Trees at 1030 m, under cooler, more humid conditions, exhibited a longer fruit development and less negative values of stem and trunk water potential (>-1.3 MPa), resulting in larger fruit (50% of the cherries were larger than 28 mm) compared to those at 480 m”
t0“sweet cherry tree water status”
Claim · model-written summary
Cherries at 1030 m were larger than at 480 m, with half exceeding 28 mm.
- Taxon
- sweet cherry treePrunus aviumt0
- Outcome
- fruite0
- Direction
- largere0
- Value
- 28 mme0
- Comparator
- 480 me0
- Setting
- 1030 me0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Trees at 1030 m, under cooler, more humid conditions, exhibited a longer fruit development and less negative values of stem and trunk water potential (>-1.3 MPa), resulting in larger fruit (50% of the cherries were larger than 28 mm) compared to those at 480 m”
t0“sweet cherry tree water status”
Claim · model-written summary
At 480 m, fruit grew faster than at 1030 m.
- Taxon
- sweet cherry treePrunus aviumt0
- Outcome
- fruit grewe0
- Direction
- fastere0
- Setting
- 480 me0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“those at 480 m (hotter and drier environment), where fruit grew faster”
t0“sweet cherry tree water status”
Claim · model-written summary
At 480 m, high evaporative demand produced water stress with potential below -2.0 MPa.
- Taxon
- sweet cherry treePrunus aviumt0
- Outcome
- water potentiale0
- Direction
- belowe0
- Value
- -2.0 MPae0
- Setting
- 480 me1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“where fruit grew faster and high evaporative demand led to water stress (water potential below -2.0 MPa)”
t0“sweet cherry tree water status”
e1“those at 480 m (hotter and drier environment)”
Claim · model-written summary
At 480 m, half the cherries had diameters between 24 and 26 mm.
- Taxon
- sweet cherry treePrunus aviumt0
- Outcome
- diameterse0
- Direction
- smallere0
- Value
- between 24 and 26 mme0
- Setting
- 480 me1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“smaller fruit (50% of the cherries had diameters between 24 and 26 mm)”
t0“sweet cherry tree water status”
e1“those at 480 m (hotter and drier environment)”
Claim · model-written summary
RDI maintained better tree water status.
- Taxon
- sweet cherry treePrunus aviumt0
- Treatment
- RDIe0
- Outcome
- tree water statuse0
- Direction
- bettere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“RDI maintained better tree water status and enhanced fruit size, particularly at lower altitudes”
t0“sweet cherry tree water status”
Claim · model-written summary
RDI increased fruit size, particularly at lower altitudes.
- Taxon
- sweet cherry treePrunus aviumt0
- Treatment
- RDIe0
- Outcome
- fruit sizee0
- Direction
- enhancede0
- Qualifier
- particularly at lower altitudese0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“RDI maintained better tree water status and enhanced fruit size, particularly at lower altitudes”
t0“sweet cherry tree water status”
Claim · model-written summary
Soil water content and stomatal conductance varied by altitude and irrigation treatment.
- Taxon
- sweet cherry treePrunus aviumt0
- Treatment
- irrigation treatmente0
- Outcome
- Soil water content and stomatal conductancee0
- Setting
- altitudee0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Soil water content and stomatal conductance varied by altitude and irrigation treatment”
t0“sweet cherry tree water status”
Claim · model-written summary
RDI helped mitigate water deficit stress at both altitudes.
- Taxon
- sweet cherry treePrunus aviumt0
- Treatment
- RDIe0
- Outcome
- water deficit stresse0
- Direction
- mitigatee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“RDI helping to mitigate water deficit stress in both situations”
t0“sweet cherry tree water status”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors recommend precision irrigation, particularly RDI, to optimize water use and harvest value.
- Taxon
- sweet cherry treePrunus aviumt0
- Treatment
- Precision irrigation, particularly RDIe0
- Outcome
- optimize water use while improving harvest valuee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Precision irrigation, particularly RDI, offers a viable strategy to optimize water use while improving harvest value in mountain fruit systems.”
t0“sweet cherry tree water status”
The same questions in other papers
irrigation · physiology: water · Prunus avium (sweet cherry)Positive and negative results
10 papers in the same direction as this paper · 1 in the opposite direction
- no effect
- positive
- positive
8 papers more in this group
See all 12 papers →irrigation · yield · Prunus avium (sweet cherry)Positive and negative results
8 papers in the same direction as this paper · 8 in the opposite direction · 1 reporting no difference from an alternative
- negative
- positive
- positive
14 papers more in this group
See all 18 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.