ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Physiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1609350
This article is part of the Research TopicInsights on Agricultural Modulators for Mitigating Water Stress in Cultivated PlantsView all 9 articles
Leaf-Air temperature difference as a reliable indicator for potato water status
Provisionally accepted
- College of Agriculture, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China
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Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) production in semi-arid regions requires precision irrigation management to address water scarcity, highlighting the critical need for real-time, non-destructive plant water status assessment techniques. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of measuring the leaf-air temperature difference (LAD) as an indicator for diagnosing potato water status. Field experiment was conducted with five irrigation levels (0-300 mm) to evaluate LAD responses at three leaf positions (L 1 , L 4 , L 8 ) across different growth stages. Results demonstrated that LAD significantly correlated with irrigation levels, plant water content (PWC), and soil moisture, with the strongest relationships observed for the fourth leaf from the top (L 4 ). L 4 exhibited the highest sensitivity to water status, the lowest variability among plants. A binomial regression between LAD and yield was identified, revealing a threshold LAD beyond which further LAD increases did not enhance yield. These findings not only suggest that LAD can be a reliable indicator for monitoring potato water status but also identify L 4 as the optimal leaf position for LAD-based water status monitoring. The study provides a foundation for precision irrigation in potato production, enabling improved water use efficiency and sustainable potato production in a semiarid region.
Keywords: Water stress, Infrared thermometry, moisture diagnosis, Leaf position, Precision irrigation
Received: 10 Apr 2025; Accepted: 25 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Guan, Fan, Guo, Wang, Shang and Jia. 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:
Mingshou Fan, College of Agriculture, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China
Liguo Jia, College of Agriculture, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China
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