Articles publicats (Ciència i Enginyeria Forestal i Agrícola)
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- ItemOpen AccessStakeholders' critical perception of diversification strategies in cereal-based rotations(Elsevier, 2026) Rezgui, Ferdaous; Blanc, Louise; Plaza Bonilla, Daniel; Lampurlanés Castel, Jorge; Dordas, Christos; Papakaloudis, Paschalis; Michalitsis, Andreas; Hossard, Laure; Lambarraa-Lehnhardt, Fatima; Bellingrath-Kimura, Sonoko D.; Paul, Carsten; Reckling, MoritzAgriculture has long been at the core of Mediterranean culture, resulting in multifunctional landscapes and diverse ecosystem services. In Mediterranean Europe, policy favored specialized agriculture, and reversing this trend has proven difficult. Diversification of crop rotations holds ecological benefits, yet adoption remains low. The objective of this study was to accompany Spanish and Greek stakeholders in a structured learning process beginning with the co-design of available diversification options. It continued with an ex-ante assessment of agri-environmental, social, and economic performance of these options, followed by a co-evaluation step where stakeholders rated both the assessed performances and the indicators used. These ratings were analyzed using an importance-performance matrix. Finally, the adoption likelihood of diversification was predicted using the Adoption and Diffusion Outcome Prediction (ADOPT) tool. The ex-ante assessment revealed that legumes, rapeseed, and intercropping systems generally outperformed continuous cereal cropping in the agri-environmental and social dimensions but not economically, with a profit reduction of up to 12 %. From the stakeholders’ ratings, we learned that they placed the greatest importance on the economic indicators. In contrast, the agri-environmental dimension was given little importance even when energy use indicators increased by 5–42 %. Likewise, diversified systems offered notable social benefits, such as reduced workload by up to 29 %, but social aspects were ranked as less important. This divergent performance of the diversified options was translated into low adoption rates. Legume systems reached a 23–28 % adoption rate in 8–10 years, while intercropping reached 14 % in 17 years, and rapeseed systems reached only 4–5 % in 9–11 years. Economic performance emerged as the main barrier to the adoption of diversification. This study evaluated the impacts of different diversification options available to local farmers from both scientific and a local stakeholder perspective. This process can be adapted to other regions to create shared knowledge, thus enabling a wide range of actors to better understand diversification impacts. This knowledge gain affects the stakeholder’s capacity to adopt diversification options and, beforehand, their willingness to do so.
- ItemOpen AccessCropping camelina with flood irrigation under contrasting fertilization sources(Elsevier, 2026) Royo-Esnal, Aritz; Cantero-Martínez, Carlos; Codina-Pascual, NoemíUnder Mediterranean conditions, droughts are important threats for farmers. Camelina (Camelina sativa Crantz), an interesting oilseed crop for its oil characteristics, is generally considered as a drought tolerant crop, but it is also affected by hydric stress periods. The Central Ebro Basin, in North-eastern Spain, characterized by semi-arid and sub-humid climates, is also an area with important pig and cow farm concentration. Managing residues is imperative to avoid underground water pollution. In this area, the average yields of camelina are 1500 kg ha−1 but are limited by irregular precipitations. Because the increasing frequency of drought periods, an experiment under rainfed subhumid climate and flood irrigation systems in a semiarid area, with three camelina varieties (Calena, CO46 and GP204), and four fertilization sources was established in Lleida area for two seasons. At the beginning of the flowering stage, flood irrigation of 100 mm was applied in the irrigated fields. Yields varied from 1000 kg ha−1 to 2500 kg ha−1 in the rainfed fields but increased to 2100 kg ha−1 to 3000 kg ha−1 in the irrigated fields. Calena resulted the most productive variety, although without significant differences. The role of the fertilization source is not clear and seem to rely on edaphoclimatic field characteristics. These results suggest that growing camelina in irrigated fields contribute to a better and economically stable production, with less water demand than winter cereals. This is crucial in the climate change scenario where shortage of irrigation water is becoming general.
- ItemOpen AccessPollen sterility in wheat is induced by blocking a light signal to the growing juvenile spike(Elsevier, 2025) Sun, Wan; Qin, Weilong; Zhang, Zhen; Zhao, Zhigan; Sun, Zhencai; Li, Yong; Wang, Zhimin; Slafer, Gustavo A.; Zhang, YinghuaLight intensity plays a critical role in determining spike fertility of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) by influencing floret development. However, whether a light signal directly perceived by the juvenile spike is essential for spike fertility remains unknown. To address this, we conducted two experiments imposing light blocking (LB) treatments from jointing to either anthesis (LBJ-A) or booting (LBJ-B) as well as a control (CT). LB was imposed through an innovative procedure employing aluminum foil. We found that LBJ-A did not affect floret primordia initiation, only increased distal floret mortality, and drastically impaired pollen viability in the anthers, resulting in a slight reduction in the number of competent florets but a massive sterility of all florets across all spikelets compared to CT, and LBJ-B exhibited results closer to the CT. For instance, under field conditions, the number of fertile florets was 42.92 in CT and 36.10 in LBJ-B, whereas no fertile florets (0) were observed in LBJ-A. While re-exposing juvenile spikes to light at booting restored fertility, highlighting that light signal perceived by juvenile spike from booting to anthesis played a crucial role for floret fertility. Furthermore, a strong correlation was observed between the number of fertile florets and the number of floret primordia with green anthers, suggesting that light blocking may impair fertility by preventing anther greening. These novel findings provide evidence that light signal directly perceived by juvenile spikes qualitatively may affect spike fertility possibly through affecting anther greening and inducing sterile pollen formation.
- ItemOpen AccessThe yield strikes back: enhancing the transferability of field scale wheat and barley yield models by leveraging Sentinel-1/2(Elsevier, 2026) Franch, Belen; Moletto-Lobos, Italo; Tarín-Mestrea, Javier; Mascoloc, Lucio; Vermote, Eric; Kalecinski, Natacha; Becker-Reshef, Inbal; San-Bautista, Alberto; Rubio, Constanza; San Francisco, Sara; Naranjo, Miguel Ángel; Paredes, Vanessa; Nafria, David; Cantero-Martínez, CarlosAccurate and transferable crop monitoring from remote sensing remains challenging because vegetation signals are strongly affected by phenological asynchrony, climatic variability, and sensor-specific responses. Existing approaches rely on local calibrated relationships , limiting their effectiveness in data-sparse regions. This study investigates whether models calibrated on high-quality localized reference data can generalize to other regions by stabilizing sensor–biophysical relationships. The proposed methodology integrates two components (i) thermal time normalization based on growing degree days (GDD) to reduce phenology-driven variability, and (ii) physically motivated optical and optical–SAR fusion indices designed within this normalized framework to enhance the consistency of learned relationships across contrasting environments. The approach was evaluated through within-region cross-season, and cross-region experiments. Results show that GDD normalization improves performance relative to calendar-based approaches by up to 35%. In cross-season validation, fusion-based linear models achieved R2 > 0.60 for wheat and 0.65 in barley. Cross-region validation shows reduced but meaningful transferability, with both crops reaching R2 ≈ 0.45, and fusion reducing RMSE by ∼ 200 kg ha-1 compared to optical-only models. Machine-learning models did not improve generalization over simple parametric fits. These findings confirm that stabilizing phenological and multi-sensor relationships is critical for transferring models from data-rich to data-limited areas, providing a foundation for scalable, global agricultural monitoring.
- ItemOpen AccessPredawn disequilibrium between soil and plant water potentials in seedlings of two Mediterranean Oak Species (Quercus ilex and Quercus suber)(MDPI, 2026) Pruñanosa, Marc; Albó Timor, Dalmau; Meijer, Andreu; Pérez-Llorca, Marina; Colinas, C. (Carlos)Increasing aridity and climate extremes are challenging the resilience of key Mediterranean species. Proxies that indicate plant water status, physiological condition and soil water availability are valuable tools for management planning. However, their reliability requires species-specific validation under dynamic environmental conditions. This study examined the relationship between predawn leaf water potential (ΨPD) and soil water potential (ΨS) in potted seedlings of two co-occurring Mediterranean evergreen oaks, Q. ilex and Q. suber, subjected to imposed soil drying under greenhouse conditions. We further quantified the occurrence and magnitude of predawn disequilibrium (PDD)—the mismatch between ΨPD and ΨS—and evaluated its association with soil water availability, plant water-status indicators, environmental factors, and physiological variables. In parallel, we assessed stomatal closure dynamics during the desiccation phase and characterised species-specific mortality patterns under progressive drought. Linear Mixed-Effects Models (LMMs), with pot identity included as a random factor, were fitted to assess the relationship between ΨPD and ΨS, as well as the occurrence of PDD and its potential drivers for each species. Stomatal conductance (gs) responses to ΨS were evaluated using a paired t-test and an additional LMM. Finally, Generalised Linear Mixed-Effects Models (GLMMs) were used to analyse interspecific differences in mortality. We confirmed a tight relationship between ΨPD and ΨS, followed by a consistent PDD in both species, with magnitudes of 0.53 MPa for Q. ilex and 0.98 MPa for Q. suber, which increased significantly with drought severity. Our findings suggest that PDD under the studied conditions is primarily driven by soil water depletion and plant desiccation, as indicated by its negative correlation with water status parameters, as well as by its increase with progressive drought. Both oaks exhibited a water-saving strategy, with stomatal closure initiated around ΨS = −0.31 MPa (Q. ilex) and −0.42 MPa (Q. suber). Despite their physiological similarities, Q. suber showed higher mortality under imposed drought. These results encourage modelling the relationship between ΨPD and ΨS to accurately interpret plant and soil water needs in Mediterranean oaks, especially under soil water scarcity, and highlight species-specific responses critical for forest management and restoration under climate change.