Abstract

ZERMENO-GONZALEZ, Alejandro et al. Carbon Dioxide Exchange of a Bell Pepper Crop Grown in Plastic Mulch. Terra Latinoam [online]. 2011, vol.29, n.4, pp.411-419. ISSN 2395-8030.

The eddy covariance method was used for measuring carbon dioxide flux (CO2) and latent heat flux (LE) between the atmosphere and 2 surfaces of 3 ha of bell peper, one under black plastic mulch and the other under silver/black plastic mulch. Net radiation was also measured at each surface. With this information, the CO2 assimilation capacity of each surface was determined. The intrinsic water use efficiency (mmol CO2 L-1) of each surface was obtained by dividing the integrated assimilation of CO2 on a given time segment of a day by the integrated evapotranspiration (LE/2.4) on the same time segment. In the same way, the net radiation (Rn) use efficiency was determined by dividing on the same time segments the integrated assimilation of CO2 by the integrated Rn. The results of this study indicated that for the crop with silver/black plastic mulch, daytime integrated assimilation of CO2 was 44.21% higher than the crop with black plastic mulch. Likewise, the intrinsic water use efficiency and net radiation use efficiency were 23.04 and 53.47% higher in the crop with silver/black plastic mulch.

Keywords : Capsicum annuum; eddy covariance; water use efficiency; CO₂ flux.

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