Radiometric relations in upper third of the canopy of the coffee tree

The transmission coefficients and extinction of photosynthetically active radiation were obtained from measurements the of leaf area index and of the photosynthetically active radiation intercepted in the upper third of the canopy of coffee tree var. Obatã IAC 1669-20 with three different alignments of planting according to the apparent path of the Sun, in Jaboticabal, São Paulo State, Brazil. There were three treatments with four repetitions, a total of twelve plots, each containing one hundred coffee trees, and each treatment corresponded to an alignment of planting. The alignment 81º-261º was the closest to the Sun's apparent movement throughout the day, allowing self-shading greater in the line and availability greater of diffuse solar radiation, contributing to a greater leaf area index. The alignment 81º-261º presented the lower transmission coefficient and greater of attenuation, showing up more efficient in interception of photosynthetic active radiation in the upper third of the canopy of this alignment. The extinction coefficient (kPAR) was estimated as a function of leaf area index (LAI) by means of the exponential model: κPAR = A + B* exp(-LAI/C); and the leaf area index was estimated as a function of photosynthetically active radiation intercepted (PARint) by the quadratic polynomial model: LAI = A(PARint)² + B(PARint) + C, where A, B and C are parameters of the models.

Coffea arabica L.; leaf area index; photosynthetically active radiation; transmission coefficients and extinction; modeling