Sprinkler water distributions as affected by winter wheat canopy

Sprinkler uniformity is often used to evaluate irrigation system performance. The measurement of uniformity is generally made from one test when no crop is present. However, a developing crop canopy has significant potential to modify the distribution of water applied during irrigation. This study was conducted to evaluate the influence of a winter wheat canopy on sprinkler uniformity and on canopy-intercepted water by measuring water distributions above and below the canopy. The Christiansen uniformity coefficient (CU) was calculated on both a daily and a cumulative basis. The CU was higher below the canopy than above the canopy. Canopy-intercepted water, which is here defined as the sum of canopy storage and stemflow, increased with increasing water application depth. Sprinkler uniformity had no significant effect on the mean amount of water interception by the canopy. The ratio of water interception to total water application depth for the whole irrigation season was between 0.24 and 0.28. The CUs calculated from the cumulative depth caught above and below the canopy are larger than the averages of individual CU values during the irrigation season. Measurement of individual CUs during the irrigation season therefore underestimates the cumulative CU. Experimental results also demonstrated that sprinkler uniformity in this study had little effect on crop yield.