Effect of leguminous cover crops on soil biological activity in pots of Citrus unshiu Marcovitch

Little is known about the effects of cover crops on soil properties in citrus orchards. To fill this gap, this work was aimed to determine the effects of leguminous cover crops on the chemical and biological properties of the soil and on the structure of the microbial community in pots of Citrus unshiu (Marcovitch). After amendment with cover crops, an increase in total organic C (TOC), total extractable C (TEC), and total N (TN) contents were observed irrespective of the type of soil. Substrate induced respiration (SIR), and potentially mineralisable nitrogen (PMN), tested three times in one year, were higher in soils with leguminous cover crops while no significant differences were observed in protease and deaminase activity. The effect on the chemical and biochemical properties of the soil was more evident in plots containing Trifolium subterraneum. No changes were observed in the microbial communities studied (_-proteobacteria, _-proteobacteria, nitrogen-fixing, and ammonia oxidizers) irrespective of the kind of cover crop or type of soil, neither were variations noted during the trial

Adherence to Mediterranean diet and health status: meta-analysis

Objective To systematically review all the prospective cohort studies that have analysed the relation between adherence to a Mediterranean diet, mortality, and incidence of chronic diseases in a primary prevention setting

Long-Term Field Evaluation of Conventional vs. Micropropagated Plants of Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium

Pyrethrum is a perennial herbaceous plant endemic to the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, and introduced in large areas of nearly all continents, where it is cultivated for the industrial extraction of pyrethrins. Pyrethrins are a group of six closely related monoterpene esters, widely used as natural insecticides. The world production of natural pyrethrins is lower than the market demand, and a wider introduction of this crop within the Mediterranean agrosystems could be an appealing opportunity for farmers and manufacturers. The availability of adequate amounts of selected plant material to bring into cultivation is, however, one of the major issues. Therefore, the in vitro propagation of elite pyrethrum genotypes could be a suitable alternative to conventional propagation methods. In this paper, we present the results of a 9-year field comparison between pyrethrum plants coming from an in vitro propagation protocol and plants obtained by cutting from the same mother plants. Furthermore, since plantlets derived from in vitro regeneration may experience ploidy changes, we evaluated the stability of the ploidy level of pyrethrum micropropagated plants by flow cytometry (FCM) analysis. FCM screening revealed no differences among the morphotypes and between them and the mother plant. Likewise, the field evaluation of plants gave no significant differences between flower yields in both groups. Hence, micropropagation was confirmed as an easy, efficient and reproducible method to obtain large quantities of selected pyrethrum genotypes