Modelo para estimação da demanda hídrica de eucalipto

Abstract

The eucalyptus is important since it sustainably fills the wood shortage and reduces the pressure to the accelerated deforestation of native forests, in addition to attend multiple demands with its products. The productivity of the species is limited by water deficit, which reduces evapotranspirometric capacity and, consequently, the biomass production. For this reason, there is always a big interest in knowing the ecophysiological demand of the plant due to the environment in which it will be installed, since it requires high investments and an extensive cycle. The main objective of this work was to propose a model to estimate the water demand of eucalyptus, based on the monthly scale, for situations of deficit, excess, or optimal supply of water in the soil; as well as identify the regional variations according to water use, root growth, planting season, soil clay proportion and maximum productivity of each genotype. For this, the model was fed with average rainfall and temperature data from the city of Barra do Garças/MT, Brazil. With the results obtained, it can be concluded that the proposed model satisfactorily simulates the water consumption of the genus Eucalyptus, as a function of the period of the year, climatic variables, local latitude and textural type of soil. Specifically, the model makes it possible to verify the amount of water demanded by eucalyptus timber culture exposed to environmental conditions, and identify variations in consumption and root growth.