Chapter 4

Modification of plant environment

Meteorology:

Meteorology is defined as the branch of science concerned with the processes and
phenomena of the atmosphere.

It is also defined as the climate and weather of a region.

The word meteorology is derived from two Greek words: Meteor and logus. Meteor
means event occurring above the earth surface and logus means to study.

Meteorology is science deals with the physics, chemistry and dynamics of atmosphere

and also their direct and indirect affects upon the earth surface, oceans and thereby
life in general.

Climatology:
Climatology is scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a
period of time. Different regions of the world have different characteristic climates
which determine the crops of any region.
Climatology is derived from Greek word ‘klima’ - place/zone or slope of the earth
and logs is study. It discovers, describes and interprets the climate on the basis of
causes and long term effects on variation in regional and global climate.
Climatology is the science which studies average condition of weather or the state
behavior of the atmosphere over a place or region for a long period of time.

Agrometeorology:
Agrometeorology is the study of weather and use of weather
and climate information to enhance crop production.
Agrometeorology is defined as the branch of meteorology that deals with
relationship between weather and climate on crop, livestock production and soil
management.

Use of Agrometeorology in Agriculture:

 Regulating the plant growth and development
 Frost prediction and protection of crop plants
 Warning against the forest fires and cyclonic storm/ dust storm
 Soil and water conservation
  Planning irrigation
 Controlling insect pests and plant diseases
 Controlling the pollution, air and water
 Minimize the losses caused by heavy rain, floods and hail storm
 Regulate the animal growth, byproduct and yield (milk, eggs and meat)

Atmosphere: is defined as the mixture of gases that surrounds the earth or any other
star, planet etc. About 71 per cent of the earth is made up of water (Hydrosphere) and
the remaining is the land portion (Lithosphere). A thick mantle of gases covers the
earth and this gaseous portion surrounding the earth is called as atmosphere. The
envelope of colourless, tasteless and odourless gasses surrounding the earth is called
atmosphere. It is derived from Greek words atoms-water vapour and spharia - sphere
that is sphere of water vapour.

PLANT WEATHER MODIFICATION

Plants have a remarkable ability to cope with diverse environments. However, the
whims of man can lead to plants being so misplaced that environmental modification
may be a useful enterprise for improving productivity. Unfortunately, the potential for
modifying canopy environments on large scales under drought conditions is limited.

There are different ways by which one can modify the plant environment,
they are:

1. Artificial rain making

2. Heat transfer

3. Controlling heat load

4. Heat trapping and shading

5. Protection from cold injury

6. Controlling soil moisture

ARTIFICIAL RAIN MAKING:

Cloud seeding: Cloud seeding is one of the tools to mitigate the effects of
drought. It is defined as a process in which the precipitation is encouraged by
injecting artificial condensation nuclei through aircrafts or suitable mechanism to
induce rain from rain bearing cloud. The rain drops are several times heavier than
cloud droplets. These mechanisms are different for cold and warm clouds.
Seeding of cold clouds: This can be achieved by two ways
1. Dry ice seeding (solid carbon-dioxide)
 Dry ice remains as it is at –80°C and evaporates, but does not melt. Dry ice is
heavy and falls rapidly from top of cloud and has no persistent effects due to
cloud seeding.
 Aircrafts are commonly used for cloud seeding with dry ice. Aircraft flies across
the top of a cloud and 0.5 – 1.0 cm dry ice pellets are released in a steady
stream.
 While falling through the cloud a sheet of ice crystals is formed.
 From these ice crystals rain occurs.
This method is not economical as 250 kg of dry ice is required for seeding one
cloud. To carry the heavy dry ice over the top of clouds special aircrafts are required,
which is an expensive process.
2. Silver Iodide seeding
Minute crystals of silver iodide produced in the form of smoke acts as efficient
ice-farming nuclei at temperatures below –5°C. When these nuclei are produced from
the ground generators, these particles are fine enough to diffuse with air currents.
Silver iodide is the most effective nucleating substance because; its atomic
arrangement is similar to that of ice. The time for silver iodide smoke released from
ground generator to reach the super cooled clouds was offer some hours, during which
it would draft a long way and decay under the sun light. The appropriate procedure for
seeding cold clouds would be to release silver iodide smoke into super cooled cloud
from an aircraft. In seeding cold clouds silver iodide technique is more useful than dry
ice techniques, because, less silver iodide is sufficient per cloud.
Seeding of warm clouds
1) Water drop Technique: Coalescence process is mainly responsible for growth of
rain drops in warm cloud. The basic assumption is that the presence of comparatively
large water droplets is necessary to initiate the coalescence process. So, water droplets
or large hygroscopic nuclei are introduced in to the cloud. Water drops of 25 mm are
sprayed from aircraft at the rate of 30 gallons per cloud.
2) Common salt technique: Common salt is a suitable seeding material for seeding
warm clouds. It is used either in the form of 10 per cent solution or solid. A mixture
of salt and soap avoid practical problems. The spraying is done by power sprayers and
air compressors or even from ground generators. The balloon burst technique is also
beneficial. In this case gun powder and sodium chloride are arranged to explode near
cloud base dispersing salt particles.

HEAT TRANSFER:
Transpiration: Transpiration consists of the vaporization of liquid water contained in
plant tissues and the vapour removal to the atmosphere. Crops predominately lose
their water through stomata. These are small openings on the plant leaf through which
gases and water vapour pass. The water, together with some nutrients, is taken up by
the roots and transported through the plant. The vaporization occurs within the leaf,
namely in the intercellular spaces, and the vapour exchange with the atmosphere is
controlled by the stomatal aperture. Nearly all water taken up is lost by transpiration
and only a tiny fraction is used within the plant. When water vapour is transpired from
leaves into the atmosphere, the plant and surrounding air is cooled down.

 CONTROLLING HEAT LOAD:

The heat load on the plant can be controlled by

1. Shade of a nurse plant
2. The whitish, silvery, and other metallic finishes of leaves – Desert plants.

HEAT TRAPPING AND SHADING:

Since heat on the surface of the Earth comes from sunlight, “heat” is trapped inside
the atmosphere when rays of sunlight make it through our atmosphere, but are not
able to make it back out because there are too many greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere. Growing of nurse plant can reduce the possible effect of heat load on
the crops.

PROTECTION FROM COLD INJURY:

To protect the plants from cold injury, apply a layer of 6 to 8 inches of wood chips or
straw over perennial and flower beds. Wet soils prevent freeze injury to roots because
moist soil holds more heat than dry soil.

CONTROLLING SOIL MOISTURE:

The following practices might be followed to conserve the soil moisture and to
modify the plant weather modification

1. Weed control

2. Soil aeration

3. Mulching
4. Conservation methods for crop land
 Dead furrows or Idle furrows
 Ridging
 Graded furrows
 Broad bed and furrows
 Tie ridging
 Mulching
 Scooping
 Off season tillage
 Compartment bunding
 Zing terraces
 Contour cultivation
 Contour ploughing