Search results for "Forestry"
showing 10 items of 1998 documents
Managing conservation values of protected sites: How to maintain deciduous trees in white-backed woodpecker territories
2020
Successional and other temporal habitat changes may also affect conservation areas and reduce their conservation value. Active management to promote vulnerable habitat features may be an effective, but controversial, solution. Old deciduous trees and deciduous dead wood in boreal forest reserves are examples of habitat features that may be lost during succession, yet several threatened species, including the white-backed woodpecker (Dendrocopos leucotos), are dependent on them. Encroaching spruce have been removed from white-backed woodpecker territories to promote the regeneration of deciduous trees and to preserve habitat quality, although the efficiency of this treatment is unclear. In t…
Improved Propagation and Growing Techniques for Oleander Nursery Production
2019
In the first trial, we examined rooting of stem cuttings in relation to number of nodes and indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) treatment in several Nerium oleander clones grown in Sicily. In a second trial, we tested the effect of different forcing dates and shading on oleander plants for gardens and natural landscapes. Three- and four-node cuttings, ranging in length from 10 to 14 cm, were significantly superior to two-node cuttings (8&ndash
Alleviation of Salt Stress by Plant Growth-Promoting Bacteria in Hydroponic Leaf Lettuce
2020
Mediterranean areas with intensive agriculture are characterized by high salinity of groundwater. The use of this water in hydroponic cultivations can lead to nutrient solutions with an electrical conductivity that overcomes the tolerance threshold of many vegetable species. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) were shown to minimize salt stress on several vegetable crops but the studies on the application of PGPR on leafy vegetables grown in hydroponics are rather limited and have not been used under salt stress conditions. This study aimed to evaluate the use of plant growth-promoting bacteria to increase the salt tolerance of leaf lettuce grown in autumn and spring in a floating s…
Direct exposure to solar radiation causes radial growth eccentricity at the beginning of the growing season in Robinia pseudoacacia
2020
Abstract Our study investigated the effect of stem temperature increase on xylem formation in Robinia pseudoacacia tree-trunks, caused by direct exposure to solar radiation. It is important to determine factors which may improve the concentricity of deposited wood tissue and intensify xylogenesis because a strong irregularity of wood tissue deposited in the radial direction in mature trees of R. pseudoacacia reduces the commercial value of the wood. Samples of vascular cambium along with adjacent tissues were collected from the southern (illuminated) and northern (shaded) side of tree-trunks growing in the inner and peripheral (thus exposed to direct sunlight) zones of the research plot. Sa…
The Reproductive Strategy as an Important Trait for the Distribution of Lower-Trunk Epiphytic Lichens in Old-Growth vs. Non-Old Growth Forests
2021
(1) Research Highlights: The work studied the beta diversity patterns of epiphytic lichens as a function of their reproductive strategies in old-growth and non-old growth forests from the Mediterranean area. (2) Background and Objectives: The reproductive strategies of lichens can drive the dispersal and distribution of species assemblages in forest ecosystems. To further investigate this issue, we analyzed data on epiphytic lichen diversity collected from old-growth and non-old growth forest sites (36 plots) located in Cilento National Park (South Italy). Our working hypothesis was that the dispersal abilities due to the different reproductive strategies drove species beta diversity depend…
Effects of environment and sowing time on growth and yield of upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) cultivars in Sicily (Italy)
2020
Cotton is one of the most important industrial crops in the world. Though widely cultivated in Sicily (Italy) in the past, cotton growth on the island has disappeared today due to a complex variety of agronomic, economic and socio-political reasons. In recent years, increased interest in natural fibers worldwide has led to a revival in cotton plants in the Mediterranean area. The aim of this paper was to assess the response of Gossypium hirsutum L. cultivars to different environments and sowing times. Elsa and Juncal were selected from the most promising cotton cultivars regarding earliness and productivity. Plants were tested with three sowing times and in two Sicilian environments. Cotton…
Planting Systems for Modern Olive Growing: Strengths and Weaknesses
2021
The objective of fully mechanizing olive harvesting has been pursued since the 1970s to cope with labor shortages and increasing production costs. Only in the last twenty years, after adopting super-intensive planting systems and developing appropriate straddle machines, a solution seems to have been found. The spread of super-intensive plantings, however, raises serious environmental and social concerns, mainly because of the small number of cultivars that are currently used (basically 2), compared to over 100 cultivars today cultivated on a large scale across the world. Olive growing, indeed, insists on over 11 million hectares. Despite its being located mostly in the Mediterranean countr…
Effect of Seasonal Storage on Single-Stem Bark Extractives of Norway Spruce (Picea abies)
2021
Increasing the net value of forestry side-streams has both ecological as well as economic benefits for emerging biorefining industries. Spruce bark represents one of the nature’s abundant sources of valuable extractives. In this study, the impact of storage on the quality and quantity of Norway spruce (Picea abies) extractives was examined as a function of storage time, environmental conditions and season (i.e., winter or summer). The bark from stored spruce saw logs was extracted with an accelerated solvent extractor (ASE) at 120 °C with hexane and water. The produced extracts were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively by gas chromatography with a flame ionisation detector (GC-FID) and…
Quantifying and resolving conservation conflicts in forest landscapes via multiobjective optimization
2017
Environmental planning for of the maintenance of different conservation objectives should take into account multiple contrasting criteria based on alternative uses of the landscape. We develop new concepts and approaches to describe and measure conflicts among conservation objectives and for resolving them via multiobjective optimization. To measure conflicts we introduce a compatibility index that quantifies how much targeting a certain conservation objective affects the capacity of the landscape for providing another objective. To resolve such conflicts we find compromise solutions defined in terms of minimax regret, i.e. minimizing the maximum percentage of deterioration among conservati…
Effect of peracetic acid on levels of geosmin, 2-methylisoborneol, and their potential producers in a recirculating aquaculture system for rearing ra…
2019
Abstract In recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS)s, off-flavors and odors, mainly caused by geosmin (GSM) and 2-methylisoborneol (MIB), can accumulate in the flesh of fish from RAS water, reducing the profitability of production. In this study, peracetic acid (PAA) was applied in three application intervals to pump sumps of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) reared in RAS. Using a real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), the potential off-flavor producers were quantified using geoA and MIB synthase genes. Streptomyces was identified as the major GSM producer, and biofilters showed the highest number of potential off-flavor producers. Concentrations of GSM and MIB were analyzed in the …