Effect of canopy temperature on physiological processes of grass pea as influenced by seed priming and foliar fertilization

Abstract

Variations in atmospheric temperature have become a major concern with respect to agricultural production. Plants being poikilothermic in nature, any change in temperature summons change in canopy temperature, inevitably affecting their growth and productivity (Basu et al., 2014). Measurement of canopy temperature is necessary to understand the plant-water status at a particular phenophase of a crop. Interestingly, plant-water status has a direct role in controlling stomatal activity of leaves. In fact, stomata are the site for moisture and gaseous exchange in plants. Thus, the photosynthesis and transpirational characteristics are strongly influenced by stomatal behaviour (Li et al., 2017). However, moisture status of a crop can be explained more prominently with the estimation of stress degree day index (SDDI), derived from the difference between canopy temperature and atmospheric temperature. The higher the value of SDDI, greater is the stress. Canopy temperature beyond optimum often drops the potential for physiological processes of crop plants with special reference to pulse crops, hampering their production (Tzudir et al., 2018)