The use of soil electrical resistivity to monitor plant and soil water relationships in vineyards.

14 pagesInternational audienceSoil water availability deeply affects plant physiology. In viticulture it is considered a major contributorto the “terroir” effect. The assessment of soil water in field conditions is a difficult task, especially overlarge surfaces. New techniques are therefore required in order to better explore variations of soil water contentin space and time with low disturbance and with great precision. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) meetsthese requirements for applications in plant sciences, agriculture and ecology. In this paper, possible techniquesto develop models that allow the use of ERT to spatialise soil water available to plants are reviewed. An applicationof soil water monitoring using ERT in a grapevine plot in Burgundy (north-east France) during thevintage 2013 is presented.We observed the lateral heterogeneity of ERT-derived fraction of transpirable soil water(FTSW) variations, and differences in water uptake depend on grapevine water status (leaf water potentialsmeasured both at predawn and at solar noon and contemporary to ERT monitoring). Active zones in soils forwater movements were identified. The use of ERT in ecophysiological studies, with parallel monitoring of plantwater status, is still rare. These methods are promising because they have the potential to reveal a hidden part ofa major function of plant development: the capacity to extract water from the soil