Wheat crop water use in semi-arid and Mediterranean environments

Two sets of wheat field experimental data and associated management practices from Bushland, Texas, USA and Avignon, France are provided. These datasets were selected based on completeness of the data and availability of data providers to clarify interpretation of data and obtain additional information, especially as related to crop management and soil characteristics. The field experiments differ in their climate, soil and individual study designs. The first is a lysimeter experiment from Bushland, Texas, U.S.A. The site has a semi-arid climate and Pullman Clay Loam soil. Data are available from three years, with two treatment fields planted each year, characterized by either full or partial irrigation (irrigated for crop establishment). Different winter bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivars were planted each year, but remained the same between treatments within the same year. The second dataset is from Avignon, France, a site with a Mediterranean climate. The soil is a calcaric fluvisol. Crops were largely rainfed, though some years received small supplemental irrigation to ensure crop establishment. The field was sown with a succession of winter and summer crops over twelve years, including six durum wheat (T. turgidum ssp. durum) crops. Cultivar mostly varied between years, with four cultivars used over the course of the experiment. We selected data from 4 of these years, having excluded two years data due to poor emergence and incompatibility of the phenology data collected with that required for model calibration.