Search results for "Agronomia"
showing 10 items of 614 documents
Effects of parent material on soil erosion within Mediterranean new vineyard plantations
2018
[EN] Parent material can determine specific physical and chemical soil properties and, therefore, soil erosion rates. However, for new vine plantations, there is not enough research on soil erosion assessment on different parent materials which could be helpful for agricultural management plans. The main aim of this research was to quantify soil erosion rates of two recent vineyard plantations under similar climate and land use management conditions, but on different parent materials, namely colluvium (2 years old) and marls (8 years old), located within the Les Alcusses valley vineyards in Eastern Spain. To achieve this goal, the ISUM (improved stock unearthing method) was applied. ISUM in…
Long-term impact of rainfed agricultural land abandonment on soil erosion in the Western Mediterranean basin
2018
[EN] Land abandonment is widespread in the Mediterranean mountains. The impact of agricultural abandonment results in a shift in ecosystem evolution due to changes in soil erosion, but little is known about long-term soil and water losses. This paper uses 11 years of measurements in two paired plots (abandoned vs control) with four subplots to determine how soil and water losses evolved after abandonment within an agricultural parcel. For two years (2004¿2005) both plots were under tillage, and after 2006 one plot was abandoned. The monitored plots measured runoff and sediment concentration after each rainfall event.
Exploitation of native Labiatae in Sicily
2006
The family Labiatae is extremely rich in genera and species, and many of them are native to Mediterranean environments. In Sicily, a great interest is devoted since ancient times to their cultivation and use, and they are traditionally used for a great deal of purposes, from cookery to phytotherapy. When their cultivation is addressed to their traditional purposes (as spices, savory herbs or herbal medicines), the major aspects of their cropping technique are well established. However, there are two many reason why their traditional cropping technique should be deeply reviewed. First, many of their productive steps (from sowing to harvest) require a great deal of manpower, and the enhanceme…
MAPs in Sicily: cultivation, uses, and potentiality
2013
In Sicily, MAPs have been used and cultivated for centuries, with many uses ranging from the preparation of fresh or stored food items, flavoring of foods and beverages, home-made human or animal therapy or even aesthetical purposes. Many of them grow spontaneously into such areas, and are claimed to play a significant role inside land biodiversity. The widespread belief that only under “natural” conditions MAPs find their optimum quality features has driven in many cases to their uncontrolled collection from the wild, and as a result many of them are nowadays at a risk of extinction. The field cropping of such spontaneous species could play an important role in safeguarding biodiversity, a…
Comportamento vegeto-produttivo di nove biotipi di mirto (Myrtus communis L.) siciliani
2009
Nel triennio 2006-2008, presso il Dipartimento di Agronomia Ambientale e Territoriale dell’Università degli Studi di Palermo, è stato svolto un programma di raccolta e valutazione di germoplasma spontaneo di mirto siciliano (Mirtus communis L) allo scopo di ampliare le conoscenze sul comportamento vegeto-produttivo della specie. Le osservazioni sono state effettuate all’interno di un campo collezione su n. 9 biotipi di mirto a frutto nero e bianco. L’indagine ha riguardato il rilevamento delle fasi dell’attività vegetativa e riproduttiva della specie, la forma e il portamento della pianta, la forma e il colore delle foglie, le caratteristiche morfologiche e produttive del frutto. I risultat…
Yield And Competitive Ability Against Weeds Of Mixtures Between Old And Modern Wheat Varieties
2018
Durum wheat is the keystone of the agro-ecosystems in the arable land of the Mediterranean environments and an important part of its area falls within organic farms. For this crop competition exerted by weeds for the use of resources (natural and auxiliary) can determine drastic yield and quality reductions (Ruisi et al., 2015). In organic farming such critical issue is often addressed through a remodelling of several techniques such as soil tillage management, sowing time, plant density and genotype choice. With regard to the latter, there is a growing interest by organic farmers towards the old varieties as they, compared to the modern varieties, have a definitely greater competitive weed…
A satellite stand-alone procedure for deriving net radiation by using SEVIRI and MODIS products
2018
Abstract In this study, a new stand-alone satellite approach for the estimation of net surface radiation (Rn) has been implemented and validated for the Italian territory. The method uses the MODIS and MSG-SEVIRI time series products and it is independent of the use of ancillary data (i.e. ground measurements). A database of daily measurements of Rn, provided by 9 stations of the FLUXNET network, was used to validate the method in different ecological scenarios in the period 2010-12. The Rn modelled by the proposed approach and the corresponding FLUXNET measurements were in good agreement, with RMSE and R2 of 19.8 Wm−2 and 0.87, respectively, at 8-days scale, and 23.3 Wm−2 and 0.92, respect…
Artemisia arborescens L.: essential oil composition and effects of plant growth stage in some genotypes from Sicily
2012
Essential oils from aerial parts of several Artemisia arborescens L. populations, collected in five different localities of Sicily, were analyzed by gas chromatograph–flame ionization detector (GC–FID) and GC–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) in order to study the chemical composition and its variability due to phenological stage. Forty-three compounds, accounting for more than 92% of the oil, were identified. Monoterpene fraction with the exception of Petru population was higher than the sesquiterpene fraction. β-Thujone (20.5–55.9%), chamazulene (15.2–49.4%), camphor (1.3–10.7%) and germacrene D (2.3–3.4%) were the main compounds. Chemical composition was influenced by phenological stage, with an…
Wild Sicilian Rosemary: Phytochemical and Morphological Screening and Antioxidant Activity Evaluation of Extracts and Essential Oils
2015
To identify the best biotypes, an extensive survey of Sicilian wild rosemary was carried out by collecting 57 samples from various sites, followed by taxonomic characterization from an agronomic perspective. All the biotypes collected were classified as Rosmarinus officinalis L. A cluster analysis based on the morphological characteristics of the plants allowed the division of the biotypes into seven main groups, although the characteristics examined were found to be highly similar and not area-dependent. Moreover, all samples were analyzed for their phytochemical content, applying an extraction protocol to obtain the nonvolatile components and hydrodistillation to collect the essential oil…
TURF-BOX: an active lighting multispectral imaging system with led VIS-NIR sources for monitoring of vegetated surfaces
2021
A microcontroller driven system suitable to monitor soil and low vegetation is described. A radiometrically pre-calibrated imaging camera driven by a microcontroller is contained in a light-tight box aiming at an actively illuminated target surface area of 50×38 cm, using LED sources with different emission wavelengths (blue, green, red and infrared). The adopted arrangement allows measurements independent from local lighting conditions and from the in situ, per-session calibrations necessary with the conventional instrumentation adopted for field measurements. Sequential lighting of the target surface with the monochromatic LED sources allows capturing multispectral images at a relatively …