Vulnerability of cotton subjected to hail damage

PLoS One. 2019 Jan 30;14(1):e0210787. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210787. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

This paper establishes the quantitative relationships between hail fall parameters and crop damages by examining the impacts of 49 hail hazard scenarios on cotton in the bud stage and boll stage. This study utilizes simulated cotton hail hazard to analyze the following data: hail size, hail fall density, and crop damages (i.e., defoliation rate, branch breaking rate, and the fruit falling rate). The results are as follows: 1) cotton vulnerability increased via an increase in crop damages as the hail hazard magnitude increased; 2) crop damages exhibit significant logistic relationships with hail diameter and hail fall density, and the fit was better at the bud stage than at the boll stage; 3) cotton is more vulnerable to hail hazard at the bud stage than at the boll stage, and the bud stage is a critical period for cotton hail disaster prevention and mitigation; and 4) damages to cotton plant at the bud stage and boll stage were less sensitive to hail size from hail fall density. Thus, we suggest that hail diameter can be used as the priority indicator to predict hail-induced crop damages. These results provide a sound basis for developing a comprehensive evaluation of hail damage in cotton, which is crucial for promoting sustainable cotton production. We recommend that the impacts of hail-induced crop damages on yield and fiber quality need to be addressed further in future studies.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • China
  • Climatic Processes*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Crops, Agricultural / growth & development
  • Gossypium / growth & development*
  • Ice / adverse effects*
  • Logistic Models
  • Models, Biological
  • Natural Disasters
  • Particle Size

Substances

  • Ice

Grants and funding

This research is financially supported by Yaojie Yue who received the funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, http://www.nsfc.gov.cn/, grant number 41271515, and the National Key Research and Development Program of China from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, http://www.most.gov.cn, grant number 2016YFA0602402. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.