• Energy Research

There is increasing concern regarding global warming and its severe impact on the farming sector and food security. Incidences of extreme weather conditions are becoming more and more frequent, posing plants to stressful conditions, such as flooding, drought, heat, or frost etc. Especially for arid lands, there is a tug-of-war between keeping high crop yields and increasing water use efficiency of limited water resources. This difficult task can be achieved through the selection of tolerant water stress species or by increasing the tolerance of sensitive species. In this scenario, it is important to understand the response of plants to water stress. So far, the response of staple foods and vegetable crops to deficit irrigation is well studied. However, there is lack of literature regarding the responses of ornamental plants to water stress conditions. Considering the importance of this ever-growing sector for the agricultural sector, this review aims to reveal the defense mechanisms and the involved morpho-physiological, biochemical, and molecular changes in ornamental plant’s responses to deficit irrigation.

Climate change, causing increasing warming and drought in Mediterranean area, is year by year determining grapevine yield and berry quality reductions, with particular extent in some of the autochthonous grape varieties, as Greco grapevine, cultivated in the Campania Region (southern Italy) and used alone or blend in many quality label wines. Since pedo-climatic conditions affect vineyard productivity and grape quality, the adoption of adequate cultivation techniques, such as soil and canopy management, can support vineyard in counteracting climate change effects, improving grape yield and berry quality, thus allowing to obtain highly valuable wines. The evaluation of the Greco grapes quality by the analysis of primary metabolites of the grape and the secondary ones, with an oenological impact responsible for the organoleptic quality and the longevity of the white wines, is pivotal for understanding whether the adopted cultivation practices might mitigate the negative effects deriving from long-lasting exposure of grapes to drought and/or rainy periods which may determine the onset of organoleptic defects in the wines.In the framework of the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, Campania Region funded the Grease project to contribute to the main topic of improving grapevine productivity, resource use efficiency and resilience for the sustainable management of vineyards.Within the general objective of the Grease project, the aim of this study was to evaluate how different combinations of main cultivation practices, as vine canopy and soil management, can allow to exert a balanced  vegetative and reproductive growth that enhances grape and wine quality, improving farm profitability.The three-year trial was carried out in a Greco experimental vineyard of Feudi di San Gregorio winery in southern Italy (Avellino, Campania region), aiming to analyze the effects of three soil management practices (cover crops, natural coverage, and soil tillage) and two vine training systems (double guyot and double guyot flipped) on yield, berry and must quality in three vintages.  The meteorological data and soil water content were collected through weather stations and time-domain reflectometry (TDR) technique.At harvest yield components were determined and berry quality was evaluated by measuring soluble solids, pH, titratable acidity, malic acid, phenolics, assimilable nitrogen etc. Apart usual chemical analytical methodologies, spectrophotometric and chromatographic techniques were used to determine phenolic composition of grapes and wines. Microvinifications were also performed to evaluate the variability of oenological traits under different combination of soil and canopy management.A great effect of year on primary and secondary metabolites were detected. Soluble solids and total phenolic compounds increased passing from 2020, 2021 and 2023 while a clear trend for titratable acidity and pH was not observed due to a wide variation in malic acid content.  Among soil management practices natural coverage and cover crops resulted in grapes with lower content of soluble solids while the soil tillage determined a lower content of phenolic compounds and hydroxycinnamic acids in grapes. In two years, soil tillage determined higher content of assimilable nitrogen in grapes probably because a lower competition for nitrogen occurred. Trends observed in grapes were confirmed in wines.

Fruiting kiwifruit [Actinidia deliciosa (A. Chev.) C.F. Liang et A.R. Ferguson] vines were grown in two controlled temperatures of 28 / 22 and 17 / 12°C (day / night) for 160 and 215 d, to measure shoot and fruit growth and carbon demand, and to examine competition between fruit and the shoot. Leaf area, internode lengths, fruit diameters, photosynthesis and respiration were measured at regular intervals. The net daily carbon balance per shoot was determined from the net carbon acquisition of shoots, and carbon sequestration as shoot biomass. Vines grown at high temperature had 200% more leaf area, similar stem lengths and 100% more biomass than vines grown at low temperature. Leaf area expansion and stem extension were transiently reduced when fruit growth was maximal. Photosynthetic and respiration rates were affected by temperature, leading to net carbon acquisition of 450 g shoot–1 for 28 / 22°C-grown vines and 253 g shoot–1 for 17 / 12°C-grown vines, 54% being used for leaf, stem and fruit growth. Reallocation of carbon occurred from leaves to fruit, and the consequent reduction in leaf area strongly reduced the overall carbon balance compared with vegetative vines at similar temperatures. The data support the conclusion that at low temperatures especially, there is insufficient carbon to meet the full demands of both fruit and shoot growth.

Climate change is one of the most important and studied phenomena of our age and it can have a deep impact on agriculture. Mediterranean countries are and will continue to be strongly affected by changing environmental factors, including lack of precipitation and prolonged heatwaves. The current study aimed to assess the adaptability of an early maize hybrid grown in two temperature conditions and subjected to different irrigation water regimes. The experimental design was a randomized complete-block design with two different temperature conditions: (i) ordinary temperature in open field (OF) and (ii) high temperature (about 3 °C higher than the current condition) under a poly-ethylene tunnel (PE). In both environments, five irrigation level treatments were applied: 100% (DI100), 75% (DI75), 50% (DI50), 25% (DI25), and 0% restoration of water lost by evapotranspiration (DI0). The responses of maize plants were assessed in terms of yield, nitrogen content determination, nitrogen use efficiency, leaf gas exchanges, and leaf water potential measurements. In both conditions, yield and its components linearly decreased as the irrigation water amount reduced, and even the DI0 plants did not produce. Notably, the PE-DI100 treatment had a significantly higher yield than the corresponding treatment in the open air (9.9 vs. 8.5 t ha−1), due mainly to the increased number of ears per square meter (13 vs. 11 m2, respectively). Though, as far as it concerns physiological parameters, a significant effect of environmental conditions was found, with values significantly lower under the protected environment, compared to the plants in the open field. Considering our results, it can be assumed that correct management of amount and time intervals of irrigation could adapt the maize to future climate change.

In the current scenario of increasing urbanization and food consumption, aquaponic systems are generally regarded as sustainable food production systems. However, its environmental burdens (energy consumption, materials, etc.) were not deeply investigated yet. To assess aquaponics' environmental performance systematically, it is important to take the whole life cycle into account. The aim of this study was to identify and to evaluate the environmental impact of a recirculating aquaponics system (RAS) prototype, using a life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Leafy vegetables (i.e., lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), curly endive (Cichorium endivia var. crispum) and escarole endive (Chicorium endivia var. latifolia)) were grown on floating rafts in combination with tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus L.) at two different lighting regimes (i.e., natural sunlight and natural sunlight integrated with LED supplemental light). Our LCA analysis included four different steps: 1) definition of the goal and scope of the study; 2) life cycle inventory (data collection); 3) life cycle impact assessment (data translation into environmental indicators); 4) interpretation and analysis of the results. Our preliminary results suggest that electricity was the main contributing factor to environmental impact, especially with supplemental light. This LCA study can be useful for providing the groundwork to reduce the potential environmental impact of aquaponics systems.

Il recupero delle ferrovie dismesse è un tema di grande rilevanza all’interno del quadro che caratterizza la città contemporanea, una città che continua ad espandersi ma che allo stesso tempo ci restituisce un enorme patrimonio di aree dismesse. Si pone dunque la necessità che il crescente consumo di suolo degli ultimi anni venga ridotto o almeno contenuto, ponendo un freno all’eccessiva urbanizzazione e puntando alla riqualificazione dell’esistente. Il riciclo delle ferrovie dismesse rappresenta un’occasione straordinaria in quanto può diventare un processo di rigenerazione su scala più ampia interessando le aree adiacenti il “manufatto”, e riqualificando spazi che possono rappresentare nuovi scenari contemporanei di cui la gente si può riappropriare. Gli scenari proposti e talvolta adottati nell’esperienza italiana ed estera, d’altra parte, tendono a conformarsi al contesto nel quale si inserisce la linea ferroviaria, in assenza di una visione d’insieme che tenga conto del recupero delle linee stesse come uno strimento di transizione verso la realizzazione di una Rete territoriale o aadirittura nazionale. Lo studio condotto si propone di fornire delle indicazioni di supporto nella definizione/individuazione dei relativi scenari, in grado di indirizzare verso recupero di tale imponente patrimonio ferroviario, grazie alla realizzazione di un Sistema di Greenways, mediante il ricorso a strumenti GIS (Geographic Information System), che convergano in un’unica grande Rete Nazionale, con l’obbiettivo ultimo di promuovere la mobilità lenta come strumento di connessione tra paesaggi e contesti storico-culturali e ambientali valorizzandoli in funzione di uno sviluppo turistico – ricreativo.