ABSTRACT Garden pansy is a versatile gardening plant – it produces beautiful colorful edible-flowers with high value in gourmet cuisine. The use of irrigation and biotechnology in garden pansy cultivation can provide gains in flower productivity and nutritional value. The goal of this study was to evaluate the growth and edible flower production in garden pansy plants, submitted to different levels of irrigation and mycorrhizal inoculation. The experiment was conducted in randomized blocks in the 2 x 5 factorial design, with the presence and absence of mycorrhizal inoculation in combination with 5 levels of irrigation with 6 replicates, in a greenhouse. There was no significant interaction between the factors mycorrhizal inoculation and irrigation levels by the F test. Under the tested conditions, the mycorrhizal inoculation was unable to provide significant changes in the growth, development and flowering of garden pansy plants. It was concluded that no symbiotic efficiency was pointed out between the mycorrhizal fungus used and garden pansy plants. The best growth and yield results for cultivating and producing edible flowers of garden pansy were obtained at the 100% replenishment level of water evaporation.

ABSTRACT Irrigation can provide significant agronomic and financial returns on agricultural activity. The maximization of the benefits obtained from irrigation depends, among other factors, on the water use efficiency, which is intrinsically related to application uniformity. For the sprinkler method, the irrigation uniformity assessment is based on results of labor-intensive field tests in which the two-dimensional water distribution pattern is measured in a grid of catch cans. The aim of this study was to evaluate a simplified methodology for determining the irrigation uniformity using water depth distribution data of a single sprinkler head in operation, positioned at the intersection of two diagonal alignments containing regularly spaced catch cans. Three methods to simulate the spatial water distribution on the alignments were evaluated: linear interpolation (LI), cubic spline (SC) and second-degree polynomial regression (PR). Each of these methods were associated with a procedure to calculate the two-dimensional spatial water distribution. The adequacy of the LI and SC modeling methods was verified by using the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test (p-value < 0.05) applied to the data of the field tests. Mean values of the coefficient of efficiency equals to 0.771 and 0.785 were obtained for the LI and SC methods, respectively. The PR method underperformed the others.

ABSTRACT Edible flowers have been increasingly used in the Brazilian gastronomy because they are considered functional foods with high antioxidant potential. Studies on the management of cultivation of edible flowers to increase the production of bioactive compounds have been developed aiming at the improvement of production systems. The objective of this work was to evaluate the production of bioactive compounds in garden pansy (Viola wittrockiana Gams ex Nauenb. & Buttler) plants submitted to different levels of irrigation and mycorrhizal inoculation. The greenhouse experiment was conducted in randomized blocks in a 2x5 factorial design with the presence and absence of mycorrhizal inoculation in combination with 5 levels of water evaporation (120%, 100%, 80%, 60% and 40%) replaced by irrigation, totaling 10 treatments with 6 replicates. The contents of bioactive compounds (total phenolic compounds, flavonoids and total anthocyanins) present in the flowers, collected over the reproductive period, were evaluated. There was a significant interaction between the factors mycorrhizal inoculation and irrigation levels by F test (p < 0.05) for total flavonoids and anthocyanins. The best results in the production of bioactive compounds were obtained for irrigation at the 100% replenishment level of water evaporation without the presence of mycorrhizal inoculation.

Resumo Na gestão dos recursos hídricos se deve buscar a harmonização entre as demandas dos usos múltiplos da água e a disponibilidade hídrica, entendendo-se esta como o quantitativo a ser utilizado de forma ambientalmente sustentável. Distribuições de probabilidade de vazões são ferramentas essenciais para avaliar a disponibilidade hídrica. Os objetivos deste trabalho foram analisar qual a melhor distribuição de probabilidade que se ajusta aos dados mínimos anuais de vazão diária média em períodos consecutivos de sete dias (Q7) de 14 estações fluviométricas da Bacia do Rio das Velhas e identificar possíveis tendências nas séries de Q7 e em conjuntos bimestrais e anuais de vazões diárias em três relevantes estações. O ajuste das distribuições foi verificado pelo teste de Anderson-Darling (A-D). A seleção dos modelos que apresentaram melhor ajuste foi feita segundo o Critério de Informação Bayesiano (BIC). Para analisar a tendência das vazões, foi utilizado o teste estatístico Mann-Kendall. As distribuições que em geral melhor se ajustaram aos dados e ocuparam a melhor posição no ranking foram Gumbel e Rayleigh. Constataram-se tendências negativas nas três estações. Para a estação de Várzea da Palma, a mais próxima da foz do rio, foram encontradas tendências negativas e significativas para os dados do Q7 e vazão média diária para todos os bimestres, exceto o primeiro.

Abstract In the management of water resources, it is necessary to balance the demands of multiple uses of water and water availability, while enabling use in an environmentally sustainable way. Probability distributions of flow rates are essential tools for assessing water availability. The objectives of this work were to analyze the best probability distribution that conforms to the annual minimum daily average discharge for periods of seven consecutive days (Q7) for 14 stream gauging stations in the Das Velhas River Basin and to identify possible trends in Q7 time series and in bi monthly and annual sets of daily discharges in three key stream gauging stations. The quality of fit was verified by the Anderson-Darling test (A-D). The selection of the models that presented the best fit was done according to the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC). The Mann-Kendall test was used to verify trends in time series of discharge. In general, better measures of quality of fit were obtained for the probability distributions Gumbel and Rayleigh. Negative trends in discharge distributions were verified in the three stations. For the Várzea da Palma station, the closest to the river mouth, negative and significant trends were found for the Q7 data and daily average discharge for every bimester except the first.

RESUMO Nas últimas décadas, as áreas de cultivos irrigados no estado de Minas Gerais vêm crescendo bastante, contribuindo assim para aumento da produção agrícola no País. Dentre as técnicas de manejo da irrigação, tem-se a determinação do consumo de água pelas plantas tomando por base a evapotranspiração de referência (ET0), diante disso, objetivou-se com este trabalho, avaliar e calibrar o método Hargreaves-Samani (HS) e um Método Proposto (MP) frente ao método padrão Penman-Monteith-FAO (PM-FAO) para o estado de Minas Gerais. Para tanto, foram utilizados dados de 52 estações meteorológicas convencionais do Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia (INMET). Estimou-se a ET0 pelos métodos citados incluindo o método Hargreaves-Samani calibrado (HScal). com base no erro absoluto médio (EAM). A análise dos métodos foi conduzida mediante aos seguintes indicadores estatísticos: raiz quadrada do erro quadrático médio (REQM), raiz quadrada do erro quadrático médio sistemático (REQMs), raiz quadrada do erro quadrático médio não sistemático (REQMns), proporções do erro quadrático médio sistemático e não sistemático, índice de concordância de Willmott (d), índice de confiança (C) e coeficiente de correlação (r). Constatou-se que o após calibração, o método HScal obteve um desempenho superior ao método HS original em todas as estações estudadas. Observou-se também um desempenho superior do MP com relação ao método HScal, em todas as estações estudadas.

ABSTRACT In the last decades, the areas of irrigated crops in the state of Minas Gerais have grown considerably, contributing to increase agricultural production in the country. Among the techniques of irrigation management, the determination of the water consumption by the plants is based on the reference evapotranspiration (ET0), the objective of this work was to evaluate and calibrate the Hargreaves-Samani (HS) method and a Proposed Method (MP) against the standard Penman-Monteith-FAO method (PM-FAO) for the state of Minas Gerais. For that, data from 52 conventional meteorological stations of the National Institute of Meteorology (INMET) were used. ET0 was estimated by the methods cited including the Hargreaves-Samani calibrated method (HScal) based on the mean absolute error (MAE). The analysis of the methods was carried out using the following statistical indicators: root mean square error (RMSE), systematic root mean square error (RMSEs), unsystematic root mean square error (RMSEun), the proportions of systematic and unsystematic mean square error, Willmott’s concordance index (d), confidence index (C) and Pearson correlation coefficient (r). It was verified that after the calibration, the HScal method obtained a superior performance to the original HS method in all the studied stations. It was also observed a superior MP performance with respect to the HScal method, in all stations studied.