Articles publicats (Agrotecnio Center)
Permanent URI for this collection
Agrotecnio aims to become a reference in Europe addressing all the key elements of the food production chain in an integrated way focusing on target crops and animals of commercial importance, rather than model systems. This later aspect sets our centre apart from other centers which focus on fundamental science and/or model plant and animal systems. As a result we should be able to address fundamental and important questions in the crop/animal of interest and results from our research will be directly and immediately applicable to our target organism. [Més informació]
Browse
Recent Submissions
- ItemOpen AccessSpatial and temporal variations of overstory and understory fuels in Mediterranean landscapes(Elsevier, 2021) Sánchez Pinillos, Martina; De Cáceres, Miquel; Casals, Pere; Álvarez, Albert; Beltrán, Mario; Pausas, Juli G. (Juli Garcia); Vayreda, Jordi; Coll Mir, LluísMediterranean forests are prone to fire and highly diverse in environmental conditions, species composition, and forest structure. While much is known about fire hazard and forest responses to fire in Mediterranean climate regions, our understanding of the spatial distribution of fuel characteristics and their dynamics remains incomplete. We hypothesized that fire hazard in heterogeneous Mediterranean regions is primarily explained by the variation in fuel loading and flammability characteristics of the understory layer across the landscape and over time. We used the Spanish National Forest Inventory data to estimate overstory and understory fuel characteristics, compare their spatial and temporal variations across Catalonia (NE Spain) over the last 25 years, and assess the role of climate conditions in explaining spatial distribution and dynamics of fuel characteristics. Our results showed that fuel characteristics strongly depend on the species composition of the overstory and understory layers. Fuel characteristics of both vegetation layers were significantly different and poorly correlated with each other. Although both strata showed significantly different rates of change in most fuel characteristics, the average changes were, in general, very small for the time window considered. Forests in the warmest and driest environments showed the highest flammability characteristics in both overstory and understory layers in contrast to mountain communities. We did not find, however, a remarkable effect of climatic conditions on the rates of change of fuel characteristics during the study period. Altogether, these findings confirm the importance of considering the spatial variation of fuel characteristics of different vegetation strata separately and provide critical information on forest vulnerability to develop appropriate fire mitigation policies in Mediterranean ecosystems.
- ItemOpen AccessDisease in regenerating pine forests linked to temperature and pathogen spillover from the canopy(Wiley, 2022) Caballol, Maria; Méndez-Cartín Ana Lucía; Serradó, Francesc; De Cáceres, Miquel; Coll Mir, Lluís; Oliva Palau, Jonàs1. Previous investigations of the role of pathogens as drivers of community dynamics in forests have mostly focused on interspecific interactions between canopy trees and seedlings via soil feedbacks. However, feedbacks can also occur directly between canopy trees and seedlings when spores of foliar and stem pathogens fall onto seedlings regenerating underneath the canopy. 2. We studied pathogen spillover between canopy trees and conspecific and heterospecific regeneration in the Pinus nigra-Diplodia sapinea pathosystem. We sampled 70 pine stands distributed across a temperature gradient of 9.5-13.7°C (mean annual temperature). In each stand, we linked spore load and spore survival in the canopy with pathogen biomass and disease severity in regenerating seedlings. The density of regenerating seedlings and the health status of conspecific and heterospecific seedlings were also measured. The strength of canopy-understorey interactions was correlated with both climatic and stand variables. 3. The most severe symptoms of disease in regenerating seedlings were found in the warmest stands. Structural equation models suggested that disease severity in seedlings was mediated by an increased spore spillover from the canopy. Temperature also increased the pathogen survival rate within seedlings, further contributing to disease severity. Interestingly, disease severity in the canopy did not correlate with spore load in the canopy, suggesting that adult trees were spilling pathogens onto the understorey regardless of their health status. Pathogen spillover increased in more open stands. Greater disease severity in seedlings correlated with stands with a higher density of oak seedlings. Synthesis. 4. These results suggest an understudied mechanism of the Janzen-Connell theory, according to which, canopy-understorey negative feedbacks could be driven by canopy pathogens. Our data also suggest that temperature shapes canopy-understorey interactions, which implies that under a warming climate scenario, an acceleration of conspecific negative feedbacks could be expected, with implications for forest regeneration dynamics.
- ItemOpen AccessPolysaccharide-based structured lipid carriers for the delivery of curcumin: An in vitro digestion study(Elsevier, 2023) Velderrain Rodríguez, Gustavo R.; Fontes-Candia, Cynthia; López-Rubio, Amparo; Martínez-Sanz, Marta; Martín Belloso, Olga; Salvia Trujillo, LauraThe present work aimed at studying the in vitro digestion fate of κ-carrageenan (KC) or agar (AG) emulsion gels (EG), and KC oil-filled aerogels (OAG) in terms of their structural changes, lipolysis kinetics and curcumin bioaccessibility. On the one hand, both EG and aerogels showed large (70–200 µm) and heterogeneous particles after gastric conditions, indicating the release of bulk oil and gelled material. Nonetheless, this material release in the stomach phase was lower in the case of EG-AG and OAG-KC compared to EG-KC. After small intestinal conditions, EG and oil-filled aerogels presented a wide range of particle sizes probably due to the presence of undigested lipid material, gelled structures, as well as lipid digestion products. For the most part, adding curcumin to the structures’ lipid phase did not cause of the structural modifications that occurred at the different in vitro digestion phases. On the other hand, the lipolysis kinetics was different depending on the type of structure. Amongst emulsion-gels, those formulated with κ-carrageenan presented a slower and lower lipolysis kinetics compared to those formulated with agar, which could be attributed to their higher initial hardness. Overall, the addition of curcumin in the lipid phase decreased the lipolysis in all the structures, which evidenced its interference in the lipid digestion process. The curcumin bioaccessibility reached high values (≈ 100 %) for all the studied structures, presenting a high solubility in intestinal fluids. This work unravels the implications of microstructural changes of emulsion-gels and oil-filled aerogels during digestion and their impact on their digestibility and subsequent functionality.
- ItemOpen Access¿Podrán los antioxidantes naturales amortiguar las restricciones de nutrientes del bovino?(Asís Biomedia, 2023-01-01) Escalera Moreno, Nieves; Álvarez Rodríguez, Javier; Sanz Pascua, Albina; Serrano Pérez, BeatrizLa subnutrición durante el último tercio de gestación puede ser una coyuntura para la reducción de costes de alimentación. Sin embargo, una nutrición deficiente en este momento de la gestación influirá negativamente en la salud de la madre y la vida posnatal del ternero. Estos efectos negativos pueden darse como consecuencia del estrés metabólico al que se ve expuesta la madre, desencadenando estrés oxidativo, entre otros problemas de salud. El estrés oxidativo moviliza rutas catabólicas que tienen como consecuencia reacciones en cadena que forman productos que interfieren en el buen funcionamiento celular. Los efectos de esta subnutrición se pueden manifestar con diversas patologías y comportamientos atípicos tanto en la madre como en la descendencia. Este tipo de estrés puede verse paliado con la adición en la dieta de antioxidantes, como pueden ser los polifenoles. Este tipo de sustancias disminuyen sensiblemente los efectos negativos derivados de esta subnutrición. Últimamente, hay una tendencia al alza en la evaluación de suplementaciones con antioxidantes en las dietas de rumiantes, especialmente lecheros, como una estrategia prometedora para diversos problemas de salud, pero todavía es necesario analizar en mayor medida los mecanismos fisiológicos implicados en dicha respuesta.
- ItemOpen AccessEmulsion-based delivery systems to enhance the functionality of bioactive compounds: towards the use of ingredients from natural, sustainable sources(MPDI, 2023) Teixé-Roig, Júlia; Oms Oliu, Gemma; Odriozola Serrano, Isabel; Martín Belloso, Olgan recent years, the trend in the population towards consuming more natural and sustainable foods has increased significantly. This claim has led to the search for new sources of bioactive compounds and extraction methods that have less impact on the environment. Moreover, the formulation of systems to protect these compounds is also focusing on the use of ingredients of natural origin. This article reviews novel, natural alternative sources of bioactive compounds with a positive impact on sustainability. In addition, it also contains information on the most recent studies based on the use of natural (especially from plants) emulsifiers in the design of emulsion-based delivery systems to protect bioactive compounds. The properties of these natural-based emulsion-delivery systems, as well as their functionality, including in vitro and in vivo studies, are also discussed. This review provides relevant information on the latest advances in the development of emulsion delivery systems based on ingredients from sustainable natural sources.