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In-Field Phenotyping Using the Low-Cost and Open Access Fluorescence PhotosynQ Multispeq Sensor Together with NDVI: A Case Study with Durum Wheat
Get PDFDurum wheat production is concentrated in Mediterranean climate regions, making it essential to develop cultivars that adapt to its changing conditions, including water and heat stress. In this regard, photosynthetic capacity estimates may help improve the selection of the most adapted cultivars. However, the cost and inherent low throughput of the usual methodological approaches makes, in many cases, phenotyping unfeasible, particularly under field conditions. This study uses leaf photosynthetic measurements taken with a low-cost handheld chlorophyll sensor (MultispeQ Photosynq) and a biomass sensitive sensor (GreenSeeker) measuring the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to assess the performance of six modern durum wheat cultivars. The sensors were employed at anthesis and grain filling under two different types of management (rainfed and support irrigation) for two growing seasons. Compared to irrigated plants, rainfed trials had significantly lower photosynthetic performance during the two phenological stages evaluated. Significant genotype differences in steady-state fluorescence yield (Fs) and maximum fluorescence yield (Fm′) across treatments and crop seasons were found. This study shows that leaf chlorophyll fluorescence parameters can be used to select modern wheat cultivars with an open-source, low-cost, handheld sensor (Photosynq).We acknowledge the support of the Spanish project PID2022-138307OB-C2 from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. S.C.K. is supported by Ayuda RYC2019-027818-I financiada por MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 y por El FSE invierte en tu futuro. We also acknowledge the support from the Institut de Recerca de l’Aigua and the Universitat de Barcelona. This article/publication is supported by the EU COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action CA22136 “Pan-European Network of Green Deal Agriculture and Forestry Earth Observation Science” (PANGEOS).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
El llegat de les varietats d’olivera del Prepirineu
Get PDFLa informació sobre la genealogia de les varietats actuals és estratègica per moltes raonsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Resultats productius de l'experimentació en varietats d'alfals
Get PDFDesprés dels 3 primers any d’assaig hi ha un conjunt ampli de varietats que han mostrat bon comportament productiu en reg per aspersió, encapçalades per les varietats LZ MAX 01, RADIA, GEA, EMILIANA, CAMPERA, PR57Q53, AVIA, AMPURDAN, PR58N57, ALFAMED, VICTORIA entre d’altres. En el cultiu de l’alfals no ens podem fixar només en la producció d’un primer o segon any d’explotació, és un cultiu on la persistència és un factor clau, el tercer i un possible 4art any d’explotació determinaran el comportament productiu final de cada varietat.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
The Difficult Decision of Using Biopesticides: A Comparative Case-Study Analysis Concerning the Adoption of Biopesticides in the Mediterranean Region
Get PDFThe adoption of biopesticides in Mediterranean agriculture is shaped by environmental, economic, and socio-cultural factors. This study explores the push and pull factors influencing farmers’ decisions in Spain’s Ebro Delta, Tunisia’s Nabeul region, and Turkey’s Adana province. Through qualitative fieldwork and comparative analysis, key barriers to adoption are identified, including high costs, limited market availability, skepticism about efficacy, and reliance on conventional pesticides. However, this study also highlights opportunities driven by regulatory changes, increasing market demand for sustainable products, and the potential of biopesticides to improve ecological sustainability. The research follows a comparative case-study approach and was conducted between January and November 2024. The methodology included a literature review, two rounds of qualitative interviews with farmers, and thematic analysis to identify barriers and enabling factors, ensuring methodological rigor and cross-validation. Findings indicate that farmers’ professional ethos and economic conditions significantly limit biopesticide adoption. Perceived inefficacy, high production costs, and low profit margins reinforce reluctance. Spain struggles with skepticism, Tunisia faces economic and informational barriers, and Turkey’s reliance on traditional practices slows innovation. Despite these obstacles, key drivers facilitate adoption, including improved agricultural education, cooperative support, and increasing consumer demand for sustainable products. Legal frameworks, particularly the EU’s “Farm to Fork” strategy, play a crucial role, though top-down policies risk local resistance. This study outlines a model for biopesticide adoption based on seven key factors, with legal frameworks and farm structure emerging as primary drivers. Addressing economic and educational barriers is crucial for widespread adoption. By implementing targeted policies, Mediterranean agriculture can become a model for sustainable practices, balancing productivity and environmental stewardship.This research received funding from the project “SAFWA—Alternative Biopesticides for Safe Integrated Pest and Water Management around the Mediterranean”, which is funded by the EU PRIMA program CUP G77G23000070008. UNISG operation were also funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR DDG n. 38-15/2/2024). IRTA operations were also financed by the Spanish National Funding Agency: CUP: PCI2023-143406/ MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ Unión Europea.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Exploring the impact of altitude variability and apple genotype on the epiphytic microbiome
Get PDFStudying fruit microbial communities has been instrumental in understanding how
this plant-associated microbiome influences key host functionalities. However, the
impact of environmental changes and host genotype on this microbiome is
unclear. This research aims to analyse, using 16S rRNA and ITS amplicon
sequencing, the potential effect of altitudinal conditions and genotype on the
epiphytic apple microbiome. Looking for key microbial genera with potential as
biocontrol or pathogenic agents and characterizing each cultivar’s core
microbiome. The results revealed that the microbial communities on the apple
peel comprise 64 bacterial and 49 fungal genera. Fungal diversity was affected by
altitude, while bacterial assemblies varied across cultivars. Within these
communities, some microorganisms with potential beneficial activity were
detected in the valley which showed higher abundance than mountain orchards,
suggesting a localized influence of environmental conditions. The core microbiome
of each cultivar revealed significant genotype-dependent microbial associations
and included several beneficial microbial taxa such as Aureobasidium and
Vishniacozyma. These insights further our understanding of the interactions
between plant genotypes, geographical location, and fruit epiphytic communities,
revealing in the process possible biocontrol candidates. This information plays an
important role in the pursuit of new modern agricultural methodologies that could
minimise the reliance on chemical pesticides.This work has been financially supported by the Spanish ‘Agencia Estatal de Investigación’ (AEI) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the national project [grant number PID2020-117607RR-I00] (ENVIRONAPPLE). This work has also been supported by the 2021 SGR 01477 grant and the CERCA Programme from the ‘Generalitat de Catalunya’. Thanks, are also given to the University of Lleida and IRTA for the predoctoral UdL-IRTA Sponsored Fellowship 2021 awarded to A.M Sánchez Ruiz. We are grateful to María Gómez, Cristina Solsona, and Cèlia Sánchez for their technical support.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Modelling the population dynamics of Rift Valley fever virus mosquito vectors in the western Mediterranean Basin
Get PDFRift Valley fever (RVF) is a zoonotic vector-borne disease mainly transmitted by mosquitoes, and present in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian Ocean. The endemic situation in Mauritania, and the recent outbreaks in Libya have raised concerns about the potential spread of the virus in the western Mediterranean Basin, where competent mosquitoes are present. However, given the large diversity of climates and landscapes in this region, the areas and periods at risk of RVF virus (RVFV) transmission remain unknown. Vector abundance is one of the drivers of arboviruses transmission, therefore knowledge on mosquito species distributions and population dynamics is needed to implement surveillance and to assess the risk of RVFV circulation. Here, we adapted a published modelling framework of mosquito population dynamics to five potential RVFV vectors in the western Mediterranean Basin (Aedes caspius, Aedes detritus, Aedes vexans, Culex pipiens and Culex theileri). The mechanistic model was designed with a daily time step and a 0.1° x 0.1° spatial resolution and takes temperature and precipitations data as inputs, along with published vector distribution maps. We used mosquito trapping data from Spain, France, Italy and Morocco to calibrate the model, and we produced monthly maps of abundance of the five vectors for the whole studied area. We then evaluated the model performances by assessing the correlation between field data and model predictions. Finally, we performed a sensitivity analysis to identify the main influential parameters. The model was able to reproduce most of the abundance peaks for the five mosquito species. Goodness-of-fit was high for Aedes species, especially for Ae. caspius, a highly competent mosquito for RVFV transmission, but lower for Culex species, with potential overpredictions in some regions. More knowledge is required about the presence and abundance of potential RVFV vectors in the Mediterranean Basin to improve predictions. However, this first model allows to identify seasons and areas with high vectors abundances that could be used in the future for surveillance of the disease.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Macrolophus pygmaeus induces systemic resistance in tomato against Meloidogyne
Get PDFThe ability of Macrolophus pygmaeus to induce systemic resistance in susceptible and Mi1.2 resistant tomato against Meloidogyne spp. was evaluated in 200cm3 pot experiments. The susceptible cv. Roma and the resistant cv. Caramba were exposed to 15 M. pygmaeus nymphs per plant in mesh bags for 48 h and then were inoculated with 200 stage juveniles (J2) of M. incognita or 600 J2 of a mixed community of M. arenaria, M. hapla, and M. javanica. Tomato plants were maintained in a growth chamber during 40 days. Then the number of egg masses and eggs per plant were determined. In addition, the preference of the insect was evaluated confronting nematode-infected vs. non-infected plants in a Y-tube olfactometer and in insect cages, where 10 females were released into each cage containing resistant or susceptible tomato plants. After 1, 2, 4, 24, 48 and 72 h, the number of M. pygmaeus was counted as well as the offspring after 14 days. The infectivity and reproduction of M. incognita were reduced by 37% and 53%, respectively, in susceptible tomato plants inoculated with M. pygmaeus. Inoculation with the nematode community resulted in a 52% reduction in infectivity and a 37% reduction in reproduction. However, no effect was observed in the Mi1.2 resistant tomato plants, regardless of the nematode inoculum. The preference and the offspring of M. pygmaeus was not negatively affected by the nematode infection or the tomato cultivar. In conclusion, pre-induction of tomato plants with M. pygmaeus reduces RKN infectivity and reproduction in susceptible but not in Mi1.2 resistant tomato.UPC authors acknowledge project PID2021-129001OB-I00 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by FEDER, UE. The authors also acknowledge Fondo Social Europeo (PRE2018-084265, Aïda Magdalena Fullana) and the post-doctoral grant Funded by European Union-NextGenerationEU, Ministry of Universities and Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, through a call from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Grant Ref. 2022UPC-MSC-93765). The authors from IRTA were also funded by the CERCA Programme / Generalitat de Catalunya. The authors also want to thank the IRTA technicians Victor Muñoz, Pilar Hernández, and Silvia Rascon for their technical support during the experiments and to the doctoral student Luis Guillermo Montes for his technical support on the olfactometer setup.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Efecte del canvi climàtic en les malalties provocades pels rovells groc i bru
No full textinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Transforming Hyperspectral Images Into Chemical Maps: A Novel End-to-End Deep Learning Approach
Get PDFCurrent approaches to chemical map generation from hyperspectral images are based on models such as partial least squares (PLS) regression, generating pixel-wise predictions that do not consider spatial context and suffer from a high degree of noise. This study proposes an end-to-end deep learning approach using a modified version of U-Net and a custom loss function to directly obtain chemical maps from hyperspectral images, skipping all intermediate steps required for traditional pixel-wise analysis. The U-Net is compared with the traditional PLS regression on a real dataset of pork belly samples with associated mean fat reference values. The U-Net obtains a test set root mean squared error of between 9% and 13% lower than that of PLS regression on the task of mean fat prediction. At the same time, U-Net generates fine detail chemical maps where 99.91% of the variance is spatially correlated. Conversely, only 2.53% of the variance in the PLS-generated chemical maps is spatially correlated, indicating that each pixel-wise prediction is largely independent of neighboring pixels. Additionally, while the PLS-generated chemical maps contain predictions far beyond the physically possible range of 0%–100%, U-Net learns to stay inside this range. Thus, the findings of this study indicate that U-Net is superior to PLS for chemical map generation.This work was supported by The Innovation Fund Denmark and FOSS Analytical A/S (grant number 1044-00108B); FEDER and MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ (grant number RTI2018-096993-B-I00, 2019–2022); and the Spanish National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA) (grant number PRE2019-089669, 2020–2024).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Evaluation of the digestibility and effects on key performance indicators of mushroom-derived alternative protein sources in aquafeeds for rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
Get PDFThe mushroom industry generates by-products often classified as waste, making waste management a significant concern. To address this challenge and meet the growing demand for alternative protein sources in aquafeeds, this study evaluated the in vitro and in vivo digestibility of mushroom meals derived from three commercially cultivated species: Agaricus bisporus (AB), Lentinula edodes (LE), and Pleurotus ostreatus (PO) in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), as well as key performance indicators associated to growth, feed efficiency and body condition. In vitro digestibility was evaluated using semi-permeable membrane bioreactors by measuring liberated amino acids, while in vivo digestibility coefficients (ADCs) and key performance indicator (KPI) analyses were determined by feeding O. mykiss with diets containing AB, LE and PO meals for 42 days. Results showed that AB meal had similar in vitro digestibility to fish meal (p > 0.05), while LE and PO displayed intermediate and lowest digestibility values, respectively. Conversely, the in vivo ADCs of LE and PO meals was similar to the control (p > 0.05), whereas AB meal showed the lowest ADCs. Growth performance, somatic indices, blood biochemistry, whole-body composition, and digestive enzyme activities of O. mykiss were unaffected by AB, LE and PO diets (p > 0.05), but hepatic carbohydrate content and vacuolization increased in LE fed group (p 90%; ingredient: > 77%) and did not compromise O. mykiss growth or feed efficiency. Thus, mushroom by-products may serve as alternative protein ingredients for aquafeeds.The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article. This work was conducted within the GreenBlueCircle project (TED2021-132054B-C21/C22) funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain). Carl John Saromines was supported by a predoctoral grant from IRTA. Silvia Torrecillas is financed by a Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC2021-031414-I) funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and, as appropriate, by “ESF Investing in your future”, by “ESF+” or by “European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTRinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio