Multispectral remote sensing in participatory on-farm variety trials (OK-Net Arable Practice abstract)

On the one hand, through the analysis of remote sensing images, it was possible to determine weed infestation, field heterogeneity and NDVI values/pixel (app. 1 cm per pixel). In some cases, we even discovered previously unknown underground field objects (e.g. a drainage system from the 70s). On the other hand, NDVI data did not correlate with traditional sampling results (SPAD values and yield estimations), probably because the multicopter covered 100 % of the large plot area, while sampling only provided data from specific points (50 SPAD points/plot and three yield sampling quadrats/plot). We can thus assume that for large plot variety trials, remote sensing can give substantially more precise results than traditional sampling methods. Further tests are needed to prove this assumption. Practical recommendations • A multicopter with a RGB and NIR camera was tested on four organic on-farm research sites in Hungary. Farm-scale plots (cc. 120 m2 per variety) were set up with 8 to 15 winter wheat varieties per farm. • Data collection was performed at flowering/anthesis, on a sunny day, between 11 am and 1 pm (sun position, wind and clouds can highly affect image capturing). • Ground data validation (chlorophyll readings (SPAD) from 50 randomly selected flag leaves/plot), phytopathology and weed bonitation were performed at the same time as image capturing (<1 cm resolution). • 3 x 1 m2 yield sampling squares per plot were collected at harvest for quantitative and qualitative yield estimation. • Validation sample numbers (SPAD, squares) were most probably too small to assess field heterogeneity correctly and to validate remote sensing (NDVI-Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) results

Eighty years of food-web response to interannual variation in discharge recorded in river diatom frustules from an ocean sediment core.

Little is known about the importance of food-web processes as controls of river primary production due to the paucity of both long-term studies and of depositional environments which would allow retrospective fossil analysis. To investigate how freshwater algal production in the Eel River, northern California, varied over eight decades, we quantified siliceous shells (frustules) of freshwater diatoms from a well-dated undisturbed sediment core in a nearshore marine environment. Abundances of freshwater diatom frustules exported to Eel Canyon sediment from 1988 to 2001 were positively correlated with annual biomass of Cladophora surveyed over these years in upper portions of the Eel basin. Over 28 years of contemporary field research, peak algal biomass was generally higher in summers following bankfull, bed-scouring winter floods. Field surveys and experiments suggested that bed-mobilizing floods scour away overwintering grazers, releasing algae from spring and early summer grazing. During wet years, growth conditions for algae could also be enhanced by increased nutrient loading from the watershed, or by sustained summer base flows. Total annual rainfall and frustule densities in laminae over a longer 83-year record were weakly and negatively correlated, however, suggesting that positive effects of floods on annual algal production were primarily mediated by "top-down" (consumer release) rather than "bottom-up" (growth promoting) controls

Farmer Involvement In Agro-Ecological Research – The Organic On-Farm Wheat Variety Trials In Hungary

The acreage of organic farming is constantly increasing in Hungary. The cultivation of cereals – and within it – the production of winter wheat is of main importance in organic field crop production. However, it encounters various difficulties. As official post-registration variety trials only exist under conventional farming conditions, ÖMKi started participatory organic on-farm variety tests in 2012, with the involvement of volunteer farmers all over Hungary. In the past seven years, nearly 50 varieties and more than 20 farms have been included in the tests which were conducted with the aim to find the most suitable varieties for high quality organic wheat production and to exclude the inappropriate ones for respective production regions. Our results demonstrate that there is great potential in choosing the varieties best suited, and that it is possible to achieve both high yield and excellent quality also in organic farming, when applying the suitable cultivars

How to make a 350-m-thick lowstand systems tract in 17,000 years : The Late Pleistocene Po River (Italy) lowstand wedge

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Farmer involvement in agro-ecological research: organic on-farm wheat variety trials in Hungary and the Slovakian upland

The acreage of organic farming is constantly increasing in Hungary. The cultivation of cereals—and within it—the production of winter wheat is of main importance in organic field crop production. Besides the challenges of global climate change, various difficulties are known, such as the inadequate variety assortment, lack of knowledge on the performance of varieties under organic conditions and often low quality of the seeds sown. As official post-registration variety trials only exist under conventional farming conditions in Hungary, the Hungarian Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (ÖMKi) started participatory organic on-farm variety tests in 2012, with the involvement of volunteer farmers all over the country. Over the past 7 years, nearly 60 wheat varieties and more than 20 farms have been included in the tests. The aim of the study was to find the most suitable varieties for high-quality organic wheat production and exclude inappropriate varieties for respective production regions. Results demonstrated that there is great potential in choosing varieties best suited to regional environmental conditions and that it is possible to achieve both high yield and excellent quality also in organic farming when adopting the appropriate varieties. The use of varieties, which were proven to be disease tolerant or resistant, can significantly contribute to safer organic production. The comparisons between the performance of varieties indicated that organic breeding has a great role in all of the above matters

Organic seed production and use in Hungary

Organic seed production and use in Hungar

The late Pleistocene Po River lowstand wedge in the Adriatic Sea : Controls on architecture variability and sediment partitioning

The authors dedicate this study to their colleague Giovanni Bortoluzzi, who passed away in 2015. A special tanks is due to Marco Ligi and Nevio Zitellini for geophysical data acquisition and processing; Marco Pastore and Filippo D'Oriano for their support during the cruise LSD2014 and processing of geophysical data. Elisabetta Campiani provided additional support for processing the multibeam bathymetry. A particular thank goes to Cpt. Emanuele Gentile and the crew of the R/V Urania during cruise LSD 2014. We thank Ronald Steel and an anonymous Reviewer for their constructive comments. This project was funded by ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company and by the Flagship Project RITMARE–The Italian Research for the Sea. We acknowledge the European Union Project PROMESS-1 (contract EVR1-2001-41) for borehole PRAD 1-2. This is ISMAR-CNR contribution number 1959.Peer reviewedPostprin

Reexposure and advection of 14C‐depleted organic carbon from old deposits at the upper continental slope

Outcrops of old strata at the shelf edge resulting from erosive gravity‐driven flows have been globally described on continental margins. The reexposure of old strata allows for the reintroduction of aged organic carbon (OC), sequestered in marine sediments for thousands of years, into the modern carbon cycle. This pool of reworked material represents an additional source of 14C‐depleted organic carbon supplied to the ocean, in parallel with the weathering of fossil organic carbon delivered by rivers from land. To understand the dynamics and implications of this reexposure at the shelf edge, a biogeochemical study was carried out in the Gulf of Lions (Mediterranean Sea) where erosive processes, driven by shelf dense water cascading, are currently shaping the seafloor at the canyon heads. Mooring lines equipped with sediment traps and current meters were deployed during the cascading season in the southwestern canyon heads, whereas sediment cores were collected along the sediment dispersal system from the prodelta regions down to the canyon heads. Evidence from grain‐size, X‐radiographs and 210Pb activity indicate the presence in the upper slope of a shelly‐coarse surface stratum overlying a consolidated deposit. This erosive discontinuity was interpreted as being a result of dense water cascading that is able to generate sufficient shear stress at the canyon heads to mobilize the coarse surface layer, eroding the basal strata. As a result, a pool of aged organic carbon (D14C = −944.5 ± 24.7‰; mean age 23,650 ± 3,321 ybp) outcrops at the modern seafloor and is reexposed to the contemporary carbon cycle. This basal deposit was found to have relatively high terrigenous organic carbon (lignin = 1.48 ± 0.14 mg/100 mg OC), suggesting that this material was deposited during the last low sea‐level stand. A few sediment trap samples showed anomalously depleted radiocarbon concentrations (D14C = −704.4 ± 62.5‰) relative to inner shelf (D14C = −293.4 ± 134.0‰), mid‐shelf (D14C = −366.6 ± 51.1‰), and outer shelf (D14C = −384 ± 47.8‰) surface sediments. Therefore, although the major source of particulate material during the cascading season is resuspended shelf deposits, there is evidence that this aged pool of organic carbon can be eroded and laterally advected downslope

Making translation work: Harmonizing cross-species methodology in the behavioural neuroscience of Pavlovian fear conditioning

Translational neuroscience bridges insights from specific mechanisms in rodents to complex functions in humans and is key to advance our general understanding of central nervous function. A prime example of translational research is the study of cross-species mechanisms that underlie responding to learned threats, by employing Pavlovian fear conditioning protocols in rodents and humans. Hitherto, evidence for (and critique of) these cross-species comparisons in fear conditioning research was based on theoretical viewpoints. Here, we provide a perspective to substantiate these theoretical concepts with empirical considerations of cross-species methodology. This meta-research perspective is expected to foster cross-species comparability and reproducibility to ultimately facilitate successful transfer of results from basic science into clinical applications