Mapping Threats of Spring Frost Damage to Tea Plants Using Satellite-Based Minimum Temperature Estimation in China

Spring frost damage (SFD), defined as the disaster during the period of newly formed tea buds in spring caused by lower temperature and frost damage, is a particular challenge for tea plants (Camellia sinensis), whose capacity to adapt to extreme weather and climate impacts is limited. In this paper, the region of the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River (MLRYR) in China was selected as the major tea plantation study area, and the study period was focused on the concentrated occurrence of SFD, i.e., from March to April. By employing the standard lapse rate of air temperature with elevation, a minimum temperature (Tmin) estimation model that had been previously established was used based on reconstructed MYD11A1 nighttime LST values for 3 × 3 pixel windows and digital elevation model data. Combined with satellite-based Tmin estimates and ground-based Tmin observations, the spatiotemporal characteristics of SFD for tea plants were systematically analyzed from 2003 to 2020 in the MLRYR. The SFD risks at three scales (temporal, spatial, and terrain) were then evaluated for tea plants over the MLRYR. The results show that both SFD days at the annual scale and SFD areas at the daily scale exhibited a decreasing trend at a rate of 2.7 days/decade and 2.45 × 104 ha/day, respectively (significant rates at the 0.05 and 0.01 levels, respectively). The period with the highest SFD risk appeared mainly in the first twenty days of March. However, more attention should be given to the mid-to-late April time period due to the occurrence of late SFD from time to time. Spatially, areas with relatively higher SFD days and SFD risks were predominantly concentrated in the higher altitude areas of northwestern parts of MLRYR for both multi-year averages and individual years. Fortunately, in regions with a higher risk of SFD, the distribution of tea plants was relatively scattered and the area was small. These findings will provide helpful guidance for all kinds of people, including government agencies, agricultural insurance agencies, and tea farmers, in order that reasonable and effective strategies to reduce losses caused by spring frost damage to tea plants may be recommended and implemented.

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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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Estimation of Apple Flowering Frost Loss for Fruit Yield Based on Gridded Meteorological and Remote Sensing Data in Luochuan, Shaanxi Province, China

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13091630 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (9) ◽

pp. 1630

Author(s):

Yaohui Zhu ◽

Guijun Yang ◽

Hao Yang ◽

Fa Zhao ◽

Shaoyu Han ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Root Mean Square Error ◽

Mean Square Error ◽

Root Mean Square ◽

Minimum Temperature ◽

Price Regulation ◽

Flowering Period ◽

Mean Square ◽

Prevention Measures ◽

Agricultural Insurance

With the increase in the frequency of extreme weather events in recent years, apple growing areas in the Loess Plateau frequently encounter frost during flowering. Accurately assessing the frost loss in orchards during the flowering period is of great significance for optimizing disaster prevention measures, market apple price regulation, agricultural insurance, and government subsidy programs. The previous research on orchard frost disasters is mainly focused on early risk warning. Therefore, to effectively quantify orchard frost loss, this paper proposes a frost loss assessment model constructed using meteorological and remote sensing information and applies this model to the regional-scale assessment of orchard fruit loss after frost. As an example, this article examines a frost event that occurred during the apple flowering period in Luochuan County, Northwestern China, on 17 April 2020. A multivariable linear regression (MLR) model was constructed based on the orchard planting years, the number of flowering days, and the chill accumulation before frost, as well as the minimum temperature and daily temperature difference on the day of frost. Then, the model simulation accuracy was verified using the leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) method, and the coefficient of determination (R2), the root mean square error (RMSE), and the normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) were 0.69, 18.76%, and 18.76%, respectively. Additionally, the extended Fourier amplitude sensitivity test (EFAST) method was used for the sensitivity analysis of the model parameters. The results show that the simulated apple orchard fruit number reduction ratio is highly sensitive to the minimum temperature on the day of frost, and the chill accumulation and planting years before the frost, with sensitivity values of ≥0.74, ≥0.25, and ≥0.15, respectively. This research can not only assist governments in optimizing traditional orchard frost prevention measures and market price regulation but can also provide a reference for agricultural insurance companies to formulate plans for compensation after 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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An Analysis of Nocturnal Cooling and Frost Damage in Tea Plants in Complex Terrain Using Micro-scale Topographic Factors

Journal of Agricultural Meteorology ◽

10.2480/agrmet.48.759 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 48 (5) ◽

pp. 759-762

Author(s):

M. Takaichi

Keyword(s):

Complex Terrain ◽

Frost Damage ◽

Micro Scale ◽

Topographic Factors ◽

Tea Plants

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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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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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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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