Strategies for managing spring frost risks in orchards: effectiveness and conditionality—A systematic review protocol

Abstract Background Spring frosts pose an important threat to orchard productivity in temperate zones and predictions of future occurrences do not exclude damaging events. However, there is no up-to-date and systematic comparison of the effectiveness and conditionality of the existing passive and active damage prevention strategies. This review seeks to answer the questions “How do the performances of spring frost damage reduction strategies in temperate fruit orchards compare?” and “How do environmental conditions affect frost damage reduction strategies in temperate fruit orchards?”. Methods and output The review covers on-site frost damage prevention mechanisms and interventions for the most important temperate pome, stone and citrus fruit trees as well as grapevine. Searches include the core collection and regional databases on the Web of Science platform, Scopus, as well as specialized libraries like Agris, Agricola, CAB Abstracts, Groenekennis and selected institutional websites. Included studies report on the effectiveness of at least one intervention in reducing spring frost damage or increasing temperatures in the field. The validity of the studies will be evaluated based on their risk of general research bias and on topic-specific, stakeholder co-designed validity criteria. Data will be extracted regarding the study setup (study design, location, characteristics of frosts) and the resulting temperature increase, crop development alteration and/or damage reductions. The effectiveness of interventions will be evaluated in terms of yields, damage to flowers, ambient temperature and/or crop development. An Evidence Atlas will identify general and geographic research gaps, as well as research trends. Meta-regression of effectiveness on environmental conditions will be attempted.

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The effect of spring frosts on the nectar production and the bee visitation of fruit trees

International Journal of Horticultural Science ◽

10.31421/ijhs/6/1/75 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

Author(s):

P. Benedek ◽

J. Nyéki ◽

I. Amtmann ◽

F. Bakcsa ◽

J. Iváncsics ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Tree Species ◽

Fruit Trees ◽

Frost Damage ◽

Fruit Tree ◽

Wild Plants ◽

Cold Weather ◽

Nectar Production ◽

Spring Frost ◽

Fruit Orchards ◽

Spring Frosts

Fruit tree species suffered very strong spring frosts in 1997 in Hungary. This caused partial or total damages at buds and flowers depending on site and time of blooming. It was demonstrated at a number of experiments that frost and cold weather also strongly affected the nectar production of surviving flowers. No or very little amount of nectar was measured in flowers first of all of early blooming fruit tree species (apricot) but also of pear and apple in some places. In spite of this fact intensive honeybee visitation was detected in the flowers of fruit trees that suffered partial frost damage only at those sites where honeybee colonies were placed in or at the experimental plantations and the lack of sufficient amount of nectar did not affected bee behaviour seriously on fruit flowers. This means that bad nectar production failed to affect bee visitation of fruit trees definitely. The reason for this was the fact that not only fruit trees but another early bee plants (wild plants, too) suffered frost damage. Accordingly, in lack of forage bees intensively searched for food at blooming fruit trees with some living flowers. Consequently, there was an acceptable yield at those plantations where bud and flower damage was not complete. Accordingly, intensive bee visitation (that is moving additional bee colonies to overpopulate fruit orchards with honeybees) can be an effective tool to decrease or eliminate the detrimental effect of spring frost on the yield of fruit trees where bud or fruit damage is not too high.

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Spring Frost Damage to Tea Plants Can Be Identified with Daily Minimum Air Temperatures Estimated by MODIS Land Surface Temperature Products

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13061177 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 1177

Author(s):

Peijuan Wang ◽

Yuping Ma ◽

Junxian Tang ◽

Dingrong Wu ◽

Hui Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Surface Temperature ◽

Air Temperature ◽

Land Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface ◽

Frost Damage ◽

Estimation Model ◽

Spring Frost ◽

Tea Plants ◽

Elevation Model ◽

Minimum Air Temperature

Tea (Camellia sinensis) is one of the most dominant economic plants in China and plays an important role in agricultural economic benefits. Spring tea is the most popular drink due to Chinese drinking habits. Although the global temperature is generally warming, spring frost damage (SFD) to tea plants still occurs from time to time, and severely restricts the production and quality of spring tea. Therefore, monitoring and evaluating the impact of SFD to tea plants in a timely and precise manner is a significant and urgent task for scientists and tea producers in China. The region designated as the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River (MLRYR) in China is a major tea plantation area producing small tea leaves and low shrubs. This region was selected to study SFD to tea plants using meteorological observations and remotely sensed products. Comparative analysis between minimum air temperature (Tmin) and two MODIS nighttime land surface temperature (LST) products at six pixel-window scales was used to determine the best suitable product and spatial scale. Results showed that the LST nighttime product derived from MYD11A1 data at the 3 × 3 pixel window resolution was the best proxy for daily minimum air temperature. A Tmin estimation model was established using this dataset and digital elevation model (DEM) data, employing the standard lapse rate of air temperature with elevation. Model validation with 145,210 ground-based Tmin observations showed that the accuracy of estimated Tmin was acceptable with a relatively high coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.841), low root mean square error (RMSE = 2.15 °C) and mean absolute error (MAE = 1.66 °C), and reasonable normalized RMSE (NRMSE = 25.4%) and Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency (EF = 0.12), with significantly improved consistency of LST and Tmin estimation. Based on the Tmin estimation model, three major cooling episodes recorded in the "Yearbook of Meteorological Disasters in China" in spring 2006 were accurately identified, and several highlighted regions in the first two cooling episodes were also precisely captured. This study confirmed that estimating Tmin based on MYD11A1 nighttime products and DEM is a useful method for monitoring and evaluating SFD to tea plants in the MLRYR. Furthermore, this method precisely identified the spatial characteristics and distribution of SFD and will therefore be helpful for taking effective preventative measures to mitigate the economic losses resulting from frost damage.

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Influence of planting date and row covers on yields and crop values for bell peppers in Saskatchewan

Canadian Journal of Plant Science ◽

10.4141/cjps92-066 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 72 (2) ◽

pp. 527-533 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

D. R. Waterer

Keyword(s):

Fruit Set ◽

Frost Damage ◽

Planting Date ◽

Early Planting ◽

Row Covers ◽

Crop Development ◽

Bell Peppers ◽

Premium Price ◽

Black Plastic ◽

Crop Maturity

In 1989 and 1990, bell peppers transplanted into the field in mid-May, late May or early June were grown with a black plastic soil mulch and no cover (NC) or under tunnels of perforated clear polyethylene (PT) or spunbonded polyester (ST). The ST treatment provided several degrees of frost protection, whereas the PT treatment appeared to increase the crop’s susceptibility to frost damage. Early planting had little effect on total fruit yields but did accelerate the harvest. In both years, the ST accelerated crop maturity and increased total fruit yields relative to the noncovered treatment. At times the PT improved crop development and increased fruit yields, but in many cases it reduced fruit yields relative to the noncovered treatment. By promoting early fruit set and development, early planting under the spunbonded row covers significantly enhanced the value of the crop, as early peppers command a premium price in Saskatchewan. Cumulative crop values for the PT treatments were generally similar to or poorer than those for the noncovered control.Key words: Bell pepper, Capsicum annuum, planting date, row covers, frost

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Spring frost effects on 30 sweet cherries varieties grown in North Italy

International Journal of Horticultural Science ◽

10.31421/ijhs/16/4/913 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

Author(s):

A. Roversi ◽

E. Pattori ◽

G. L. Malvicini ◽

S. Sbaruffati

Keyword(s):

Sweet Cherry ◽

Frost Damage ◽

Flowering Stage ◽

Full Bloom ◽

Absolute Minimum ◽

Spring Frost ◽

Sweet Cherries ◽

Fruit Harvest

After a spring frost occurred in second half of March 2008, with temperatures below 0°C for 8 days consecutively and an absolute minimum of -5.5°C, a lot of observations have been made on the sweet cherry flowers damages. In three different orchards “Italian palmetta” trained on grassing ground soil, the percentage of the flowers killed by frost, was detected and recorded considering the different genotypes and flowers height from the ground. Furthermore, in one orchard only it was possible to find relationship between flowering stage and frost damage. The results clearly confirm our previous works about the highest mortality of the flower in the upper part ( > 1.50 m) of the canopy and in the full bloom open flowers. So, in this area, the easiness of agronomic operations, like pruning and, especially, fruit harvest, due to the crown proximity to the ground, is cancelled by the frequency of spring frost.

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The Spring frost-damage on the flower and bud of the Broad bean

Journal of Agricultural Meteorology ◽

10.2480/agrmet.6.129 ◽

1951 ◽

Vol 6 (3-4) ◽

pp. 129-132

Author(s):

I. SATO ◽

M. NISHIKAWA

Keyword(s):

Broad Bean ◽

Frost Damage ◽

Spring Frost

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EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE FACTORIAL EFFECTS : Influence of environmental conditions on the frost damage of concrete (I)

Journal of Structural and Construction Engineering (Transactions of AIJ) ◽

10.3130/aijsx.367.0_8 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 367 (0) ◽

pp. 8-15

Author(s):

MASAYUKI TABATA ◽

YOSHIRO KOH ◽

EIJI KAMADA

Keyword(s):

Experimental Study ◽

Environmental Conditions ◽

Frost Damage ◽

Factorial Effects

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Seasonal and annual variation of carbon fluxes in a young Siberian larch (<i>Larix sibirica</i>) plantation in Iceland

Biogeosciences Discussions ◽

10.5194/bgd-6-6601-2009 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 6601-6634 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

B. Bjarnadottir ◽

B. D. Sigurdsson ◽

A. Lindroth

Keyword(s):

Carbon Balance ◽

Climatic Factors ◽

Ecosystem Respiration ◽

Abiotic Factors ◽

Gross Primary Production ◽

Seasonal Pattern ◽

Soil Water Potential ◽

Siberian Larch ◽

Frost Damage ◽

Spring Frost

Abstract. This study reports 3-year measurements (2004–2006) of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) over a 12–14 year old Siberian larch forest in Iceland established on previously grazed heath land pasture that had been site-prepared prior to planting. The study evaluated interannual and seasonal variation of NEE and its component fluxes, gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (Re), with the aim to clarify how climatic factors controlled the site's carbon balance. The young plantation acted as a relatively strong sink for CO2 during all of the three years, with a net sequestration of −375, −566 and −245 g CO2 m−2 for years 2004, 2005 and 2006, respectively. The annual carbon balance was strongly influenced by climatic factors leading to a high inter-annual variability in NEE. This variation was more related to variation in carbon efflux (Re) than carbon uptake (GPP). The abiotic factors that showed the strongest correlation to Re were air temperature during the growing season and soil water potential. The GPP mostly followed the seasonal pattern in irradiance, except in 2005, when the plantation experienced severe spring frost damage that set the GPP back to zero. It was not expected that the rather slow-growing Siberian larch plantation would be such a strong sink for atmospheric CO2 only twelve years after site preparation and afforestation.

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