Articles publicats (Ciència i Enginyeria Forestal i Agrícola)

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    Open Access
    Contrasting fungal functional groups influence nutrient cycling across four Japanese cool-temperate forest soils
    (Elsevier, 2024) Seidel, Felix; Castaño, Carles; Alday, Josu G; Lopez C., M. Larry; Bonet Lledos, José Antonio
    Understanding soil dynamics and nutrient cycling is crucial for the sustainable management of Japanese forests covering 70 % of the national land area. These forests are dominated by tree species with contrasting traits, influencing soil dynamics differently. We investigated how changes in soil characteristics across different forest stands shift in composition and functioning of fungal communities. Four different forest stands dominated by two different mycorrhizal types were selected: Fagus crenata and Larix kaempferi, representing ectomycorrhizal (ECM) types, and Cryptomeria japonica and Robinia pseudoacacia, representing arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) types. In total, 62 composite topsoil samples from two depths were analyzed for their physicochemical properties and fungal communities were profiled by DNA sequencing. Ectomycorrhizal fungi dominated soils of Fagus crenata and Larix kaempferi forests, while fungal saprotrophs were more abundant in Cryptomeria japonica and Robinia pseudoacacia forests. Forest stand type rather than soil depth determined the composition and structure of soil fungal communities. Soil pH was positively correlated with abundances of saprotrophic fungi (P < 0.05) and negatively with ECM fungi. Soil C:N ratio was positively correlated, and nitrate was negatively correlated with relative abundances of root-associated fungi, primarily ECM fungi. No links between C nor N stocks with fungal guilds were found across the dataset. Observed links between soil C:N ratio and relative abundances of root-associated fungi and saprotrophs stress the importance of these guilds for influencing nutrient cycling economy across contrasting forest types. The lack of correlation between fungal communities and soil C and N stocks suggests distinct mechanisms driving stocks in these soils.
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    Open Access
    Water microturbines for sustainable applications: optimization analysis and experimental validation
    (Springer, 2024) Rodríguez-Pérez, Angel M.; Rodríguez-González, César Antonio; López Alonso, Raúl; Hernandez-Torres, J. A.; Caparros-Mancera, J. J.
    The use of microturbines in irrigation applications represents a great opportunity for increasing sustainable energy generation. Irrigation systems have water flow that can be used to generate electricity based on microturbines that are acceptably configure such, that efficiency in crop irrigation is not affected. This research validates this use of microturbines through a system designed specifically for the characterization of microturbine generation technology. This system includes a closed water pumping circuit capable of working under, different water flow settings, as well as flow, pressure, and electricity generation sensors. For this system, the production range of the microturbines and the pressure loss associated with the various proposed configurations are characterized and specifically quantified for the best performance. After design and characterization of a scalable microturbine system, the feasibility and benefits of this application to supporting most relevant crops supplied by localized irrigation are analysed. The experiments demonstrate the greatest benefit with the implementation of 15 series microturbines each at 80 V, alongside non-Citrus fruit, where a favourable balance is achieved for the amortization period in vineyards and citrus fruit. The results validate a profitable and sustainable design for electricity generation, with return on investment rates of up to 53%. Therefore, this research offers real and extensive applications, while being scalable to rural, residential, urban and industrial settings. Center dot Development of an experimental system for the characterization of water microturbines and validation in irrigation systems.center dot Design of a system to obtain clean energy from the pressure head excess of irrigation systems based on experimental characterization.center dot Analysis of the feasibility and investment of the application of the sustainable energy generation system to different crops.
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    Open Access
    Maximum tree height in European Mountains decreases above a climate-related elevation threshold
    (Nature Publishing Group, 2024) Gelabert Vadillo, Pere Joan; Rodrigues Mimbrero, Marcos; Coll Mir, Lluís; Vega García, Cristina; Améztegui González, Aitor
    Mountain forests face important threats from global change and spatio-temporal variation in tree height can help to monitor these effects. In this study, we used the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation space-borne laser sensor to examine the relationship between maximum tree height and elevation, and the role of climate, in the main European mountain ranges. We found a piecewise relationship between elevation and maximum tree height in all mountain ranges, supporting the existence of a common breakpoint that marks the beginning of tree development limitations. Temperature and precipitation were identified as the most important drivers of tree height variation. Additionally, we predicted significant upward displacement of the breakpoint for the period 2080-2100 under climate change scenarios, potentially increasing the area without growth limitations for trees. These findings contribute to understanding the impacts of global warming on mountain forest ecosystems and provide insights for their monitoring and management.
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    Open Access
    Marine protection enhances the resilience of biological communities on temperate rocky reefs
    (Wiley, 2024) Sanabria-Fernández, José A.; Alday, Josu G.
    Conservation science faces the urgent challenge of halting the biodiversity loss caused by the biological crisis of the present era. To achieve this, conservation science requires cutting-edge tools to focus on vital properties of ecosystems, such as the resilience. Resilience informs about the cost of recovering biological communities. Here, we developed a metric to quantify the ecological assemblage recovery cost based on the dissimilarity between unprotected and partially protected communities compared with totally protected communities in Cabo de Gata Marine Reserve. Our results show that the biological assemblage composed of fish, macroinvertebrates and cryptic fish, and macroalgae species in unprotected zones requires a higher ecological recovery cost than in partially protected zones when moving towards a fully protected community. This research contributes to monitoring marine the effectiveness of marine protection from a resilience perspective, with the goal of promoting the use of the recovery cost metric for building resilient coastal ecosystems.
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    Open Access
    Aphidius colemani behavior changes depending on volatile organic compounds emitted by plants infected with viruses with different modes of transmission
    (MDPI, 2024) Clemente Orta, Gemma María; Cabello, Ángel; Garzo, Elisa; Moreno, Aranzazu; Fereres, Alberto
    Natural enemies are an additional component that may interact directly with the plant–virus–vector association, affecting viral dispersion. In our study, we conducted olfactometry assays to explore how single and mixed infections with CMV or/and CABYV modify the attractiveness of A. colemani to aphid-free and aphid-infested melon plants using two melon genotypes. Subsequently, we investigated the influence of CABYV-infected plants infested by A. gossypii on the parasitism rate and emergence of A. colemani in a dual-choice assay under greenhouse conditions. Our study demonstrates that males showed no preference for either infected or non-infected plants. Female parasitoids exhibit a preference for volatiles emitted by CMV and mixed-infected melon plants over clean air but not over mock-inoculated plants, suggesting a response influenced by plant genotype. Female parasitoid responses to CABYV and its interactions with aphids revealed a preference for mock-inoculated plants over CABYV-infected plants and a parasitism rate slightly higher (7.12%) on non-infected plants. Our study revealed that (1) parasitoids may reject olfactory cues from CABYV-infected plants, potentially interfering with the plant’s “cry for help” response; (2) in the case of CMV, whether in single or mixed infections, non-infected plants are as attractive as infected ones to parasitoids. Our findings suggest that persistent viruses manipulate aphid parasitoid behavior to their advantage, promoting virus disease in melon crops.