Alleviating drought and heat stress: a root-canopy coordination irrigation strategy synergistically elevating grapevine yield, quality, and water productivity

Amid the intensification of global climate change, drought and heat stress have become major factors causing significant reductions in crop yield and quality. It is a critical challenge to mitigate these stresses while simultaneously enhancing crop productivity, fruit quality, and water use efficiency for achieving sustainable agriculture in arid regions. In this study, we propose an innovative root-canopy coordination irrigation (RCCI) strategy that optimizes water allocation between the root zone and canopy, ensuring root water supply while simultaneously improving microclimate conditions through canopy evaporative cooling to mitigate drought and heat stress. A three-year field experiment conducted on wine grapes (Vitis vinifera L.) demonstrated that, following each micro-sprinkling event, RCCI induced peak effects of a 3.9 degrees C-10.7 degrees C reduction in canopy temperature, a 22.8-42.4 percentage points increase in relative humidity, and a 2.2 kPa-3.8 kPa decrease in vapor pressure deficit (VPD). These effects then gradually diminished, with the microclimate returning to the level of conventional drip irrigation (CK) within 2.5-3 h. RCCI lowered the seasonal average canopy temperature and VPD by 3.1 % and 11.6 %, respectively, while increasing relative humidity by 4.3 % compared to CK. RCCI significantly enhanced predawn and midday stem water potential by 14.3 %-47.7 % and 14.7 %-40.4 %, respectively, while increasing leaf net photosynthetic rate by 21.0 %-27.2 % and stomatal conductance by 20.1 %-37.0 %. These physiological improvements contributed to increases in berry fresh weight by 2.4 %-13.8 %, dry weight by 1.8 %-11.4 %, and anthocyanin concentration by 19.1 %-138.1 % at maturity. With no additional irrigation water supply, the RCCI treatments increased crop yield by 21.6 %-22.2 % and irrigation water productivity by 11.1 %-15.9 % compared to CK, thereby achieving simultaneous improvements in water conservation, yield enhancement, and berry quality improvement. The innovative RCCI strategy provides a novel solution for coping with climate change in arid regions and has important practical implications for the sustainable production of high-value crops.