ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Hortic.
Sec. Viticulture, Pomology, and Soft Fruits
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring Agrivoltaics: Balancing Crop Production and Solar Energy for Sustainable AgricultureView all articles
Impact of Shading Following Installation of Agrivoltaic Systems on Eco-Physiological and Biochemical Attributes of 'Howes' Cranberry in Massachusetts"
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, United States
- 2Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
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Agrivoltaic (AV) systems, which integrate solar energy generation with crop production on the same piece of land, offer a sustainable solution for optimizing land use. The impact of shading induced by solar panels on crop growth, physiology, and metabolic activities of cranberry is not known. Hence, we evaluated eco-physiological and biochemical crop responses on a commercial 'Howes' cranberry bog grown under an agrivoltaics system using different row spacings in the year immediately following installation. Following installation of fixed tilt solar panels at a height of 3.0 m above the plant canopy, four shading treatments were evaluated: an uncovered control area and row spacings of 9.0 m, 7.0 m, and 5.0 m, corresponding to 30%, 35%, and 37% shading respectively. The shading effect was also evaluated at three different fruit developmental stages (green, blush, and full-red stage). Using microclimate sensors installed in the treatment areas, key eco-physiological and biochemical parameters, including leaf gas exchange, chlorophyll, anthocyanin, and antioxidant content, electrolyte leakage, proline and trehalose accumulation, were assessed. While moderate shading (30% and 35%) mitigated environmental stress by improving leaf water status, and reducing electrolyte leakage, these same treatments reduced photosynthetic activity, carbon reserves accumulation and biosynthesis of stress-related osmolytes and antioxidant compounds. Under 37% shade, these reductions were more pronounced. Minimizing these trade-offs by optimizing row spacing in agrivoltaics systems is critical to maintain cranberry physiological status. Since commercial cranberry is grown as a continuous plant canopy (no interrow spaces for equipment travel), damage caused by the installation process likely impacted crop response evaluated in the first year; multi-year studies are needed to fully understand the dynamics of a dual-use system. This study contains the first report of direct measurements and influence of AV on proline, trehalose, and electrolyte leakage for cranberry.
Keywords: sustainable agriculture, Photosynthesis, Metabolites, Antioxidants, phenolics, Flavonoids, Proline content, Trehalose
Received: 30 Aug 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Priya, Sandler, Jeranyama, Nayyar and Mupambi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Giverson Mupambi, gmupambi@umass.edu
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