Frequentist and Bayesian inference for gas exchanges of drip-irrigated bell pepper1

Abstract

ABSTRACT The water deficit or excess may cause undesirable changes in yield and physiological aspects of irrigated crops. Considering the analysis of experimental data, the use of classical statistical methods may not be sufficient to detect morphological and physiological effects resulting from the conditions employed, being interesting the use of new procedures, such as the Bayesian inference. This study aimed to evaluate the gas exchanges in the bell pepper crop under irrigation depths and different irrigation times, in a protected environment, by applying the parametric and Bayesian methods. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design, arranged in a 5 x 2 factorial scheme, with five irrigation depths (60, 80, 100, 120 and 140 % of the crop evapotranspiration) and two irrigation times (8 a.m. and 2 p.m.), with five replications. The stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, photosynthetic rate, intrinsic water-use efficiency, ratio between the photosynthetic rate and the transpiration rate, and total dry matter were evaluated. The gas exchanges were affected by water replacement depths, with little interference from the irrigation times. The linear regression models, according to the irrigation depths, for transpiration rate, stomatal conductance and total dry matter were significant for both the statistical methods, suggesting that the results are similar and even coincident, especially when a priori information are not provided in the Bayesian analysis. Differences in the photosynthetic rate were observed only with the Bayesian method, adjusting linear models according to the irrigation depths, in both the irrigation times.