Due to climate change, agricultural drought is becoming more frequent and severe. In northeastern part of Slovenia, which is agriculturally the most productive region of the country, the occurrence of drought is quite common. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the physiological response of maize (Zea mays L.) to water stress. The results of field measurements will be used for the evaluation of vegetation indices obtained by remote sensing. In field experiments which were conducted in the area of Murska Sobota, we were evaluating the physiological response of filed grown maize to different soil textures and irrigation regimes, with measurements of RWC, Fv/Fm and SPAD value. In the year of 2016 we have conducted a preliminary measurements, but since maize genotype was not homogeneous across all studied plots, we were not able to compare the results and make any solid conclusions. In the year of 2017 we have conducted measurements three times, twice in July and once in August. We have concluded that irrigated crops were in much better physiological condition regardless of the soil texture. In a greenhouse pot experiment, we have exposed plants to drought conditions, evaluated the dependency of Ψ to RWC and monitored stomatal and non-stomatal limitations of photosynthesis. Our results showed that the main obstacle of insufficient rate of photosynthesis in maize hybrid ˈP0216ˈ, exposed to water stress is reduced stomatal conductivity. We consider that the measured physiological parameters gained in Prekmurje are useful for the validation and calibration of vegetation indices obtained by remote sensing.
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