Gas Exchange of Cowpea Cultivated in Norteast of Pará in Response to Imposed Water Deficit During Reproductive Phase

Abstract Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) is a cultivated legume in the North and Northeast of Brazil, but in Pará, the crop has low productivity, due to the low soil fertility and climatic adversity, mainly water deficiency. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of different levels of cumulative water deficit during reproductive stage on gas exchange of the cowpea. The experiment was conducted in Castanhal / Pa, in the years of 2015 and 2016 in a randomized complete block design, with six replicates and four treatments correpondent to 100% replacement of the water lost by the evapotranspiration of the crop (T1), to 50% of replacement (T2), to 25% of replacement (T3) and without irrigation (T4). Gas Exchange were determined in the phenological stage R9, correspondente to 64 days after sowing (28 dais after the begining of treatments). Water deficit was obtained by daily soil water balance according to the available water capacity and the size of the effective root system, observed at field. There was not significant difference between experimental years besides the effect of treatments. Cowpea show to be sensitive to the cumulated water déficit, decreasing its stomatal conductance and phtosyntesis rate, which differed significantly among the four treatments. For leaf water potential and internal carbono there was significant difference only between the extreme treatment. Such behavior suggest that cowpea preserve leaf water potential even under cumulative conditions of water deficit acting as a conservative specie by priorizing the maintenance of its water status rather than its photossynthetic activity. The lowest yields occurred in response to the water déficit imposed by the treatments with smaller irrigation blade.