Plant response to greenhouse cooling

This paper offers an overview of the response of protected crops to greenhouse cooling during the warm season. The main focus is directed to shading and evaporative cooling systems, the two main techniques used in the practice to alleviate the environmentally-induced stress (high temperature and high VPD) prevailing under Mediterranean greenhouses. For both techniques, the effects, either positive or negative, on the plant behaviour and on their adaptation to the modified environment are discussed, with special emphasis on the physiological fluxes (photosynthesis, transpiration) and on the stomatal conductance. A special section is devoted to the case of low LAI crops.