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This work has been developed with financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (project AGL-2014-54201-C4-1R AEI/FEDER, UE) and by the UE project ERA-NET COFOUNMD FACCE SURPLUS, (Ref: 652615). We would like to thank Mr. Miquel Mas and collaborators of the UIB Experimental Field and Greenhouses which are supported by the UIBGrant 15/2015.
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Hernandez-Montes, EstherAuthorWhole-Plant Water Use in Field Grown Grapevine: Seasonal and Environmental Effects on Water and Carbon Balance
Publicated to:Frontiers In Plant Science. 9 1540- - 2018-11-12 9(), DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2018.01540
Authors: Douthe, Cyril; Medrano, Hipolito; Tortosa, Ignacio; Mariano Escalona, Jose; Hernandez-Montes, Esther; Pou, Alicia;
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Abstract
Water scarcity is a main challenge in vineyards sustainability in most of the grapevine areas now and even more in near future due to climatic change perspectives. In consequence, water use efficiency (WUE) measurements are of the highest interest to improve the sustainability of this crop. The vast majority of WUE measurements relays on measurements of leaf carbon and water fluxes at leaf-level. However, less data are available at the whole-plant level, and for the moment those data are not totally coincident with conclusions reached at leaf scale. In this study, we used whole-plant chambers able to enclose an entire plant of 12 years old to measure at the same time water and carbon fluxes under realistic field grown conditions. The main objectives were to identify the technical issues interfering the whole-plant measurements and track the environmental and other abiotic factors that can affect water and carbon balance, i.e., WUE at the whole-plant scale. To achieve those objectives, we measured wholeplant water and carbon fluxes in grapevine exposed to two different water regimes at three phenological stages [pea size (July), ripening (August), and harvest (September)]. In September, measurements were repeated under high CO2 to also check its effect at the whole-plant scale. The results indicate that water and carbon fluxes are well coordinated under both water availability treatments. Under drought conditions, both fluxes were drastically reduced, but surprisingly the estimated WUE resulted not improved but decreased, contrarily to what is shown at the leaf scale. The phenology (September) also strongly decreased both water and carbon fluxes when compared to measurements in July. We hypostatized that harvest load respiration rates could have an important weight on the whole-plant net carbon exchange (NCE). Finally, high CO2 measurements, after correction for leaks, indicated an increase of whole-plant NCE as well as increased whole-plant WUE, as expected. Several technical issues were identified, like 1/instability of [CO2] during the night period that prevent robust estimation of whole-plant respiration and 2/condensation during last night and sun-rise hours which may affect the estimation of daily plant transpiration.
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Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel
The work has been published in the journal Frontiers In Plant Science due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2018, it was in position 20/228, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Plant Sciences. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.
From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 2.66, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)
Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-05, the following number of citations:
- WoS: 18
- Scopus: 21
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors
This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: United States of America.