Where do we stand on the knowledge of T. magnatum environments? Progress and new research hypotheses

Knowledge about the environments of T. magnatum has been consolidated in the 2000s, confirming the importance of microclimate and that of specific soil types that, in fact, restrict the areas of natural spread of the fungus. In recent years, investigations have focused on two distinct themes: on the one hand, mycorrhization techniques have been refined, leading to the commercial production of mycorrhized plants and the establishment of the first experimental truffle orchards; on the other hand, the hydrological aspects of natural truffle areas, previously left in the background, have begun to be studied. The first topic has yielded interesting results with the start of production in areas never reported as productive and promises to expand the territories in which to "cultivate" T. magnatum. The second line of investigation is providing insights into the need for specific water management of truffles - natural and cultivated - focused on soil water conservation. For the future, it will be necessary to work in depth on this aspect. The natural environments of T. magnatum are characterized by a great need for water, which we hypothesize can be managed at the scale of micro-hydrographic basin, since the exclusive use of irrigation practices adopted, for example, for T. melanosporum is not economically viable

O IMPACTO DA TESE DO MARCO TEMPORAL NOS PROCESSOS JUDICIAIS QUE DISCUTEM DIREITOS POSSESSÓRIOS INDÍGENAS

O presente artigo tem por objetivo analisar o impacto da tese do marco temporal nos processos judiciais em que se discute os direitos possessórios indígenas. A pesquisa foi realizada a partir de revisão bibliográfica e jurisprudencial. Num primeiro momento, será visto como referida tese surgiu durante o julgamento do caso conhecido como Raposa Serra do Sol, no qual discutiu-se a constitucionalidade da demarcação contínua da terra indígena. Na segunda parte, como os processos judiciais que envolvem a discussão do direito à terra dos povos indígenas foram afetados pela decisão do Supremo Tribunal Federal. Nesse sentido, serão vistos casos analisados pelo STF e pelos tribunais inferiores que se utilizaram da tese do marco temporal. O artigo busca chamar a atenção para como uma tese que nem mesmo faz parte das dezenove condicionantes estabelecidas no julgamento, nem mesmo na parte do decisium do acórdão, está sendo utilizada como requisito ou empecilho para o reconhecimento dos direitos possessórios dos povos indígenas. Ademais, trata-se de um posicionamento que contraria o texto da Constituição Federal de 1988 e dos documentos regionais e internacionais de direitos humanos ratificados pelo Brasil. Por fim, que a utilização da tese do marco temporal coloca os povos indígenas em situação de vulnerabilidade, conforme apontam os indicadores da Organização das Nações Unidas

Soil and crop management practices and the water regulation functions of soils: a qualitative synthesis of meta-analyses relevant to European agriculture

Adopting soil and crop management practices that conserve or enhance soil structure is critical for supporting the sustainable adaptation of agriculture to climate change, as it should help maintain agricultural production in the face of increasing drought or water excess without impairing environmental quality. In this paper, we evaluate the evidence for this assertion by synthesizing the results of 34 published meta-analyses of the effects of such practices on soil physical and hydraulic properties relevant for climate change adaptation in European agriculture. We also review an additional 127 meta-analyses that investigated synergies and trade-offs or help to explain the effects of soil and crop management in terms of the underlying processes and mechanisms. Finally, we identify how responses to alternative soil–crop management systems vary under contrasting agro-environmental conditions across Europe. This information may help practitioners and policymakers to draw context-specific conclusions concerning the efficacy of management practices as climate adaptation tools.Our synthesis demonstrates that organic soil amendments and the adoption of practices that maintain “continuous living cover” result in significant benefits for the water regulation function of soils, mostly arising from the additional carbon inputs to soil and the stimulation of biological processes. These effects are clearly related to improved soil aggregation and enhanced bio-porosity, both of which reduce surface runoff and increase infiltration. One potentially negative consequence of these systems is a reduction in soil water storage and groundwater recharge, which may be problematic in dry climates. Some important synergies are reductions in nitrate leaching to groundwater and greenhouse gas emissions for nonleguminous cover crop systems. The benefits of reducing tillage intensity appear much less clear-cut. Increases in soil bulk density due to traffic compaction are commonly reported. However, biological activity is enhanced under reduced tillage intensity, which should improve soil structure and infiltration capacity and reduce surface runoff and the losses of agro-chemicals to surface water. However, the evidence for these beneficial effects is inconclusive, while significant trade-offs include yield penalties and increases in greenhouse gas emissions and the risks of leaching of pesticides and nitrate.Our synthesis also highlights important knowledge gaps on the effects of management practices on root growth and transpiration. Thus, conclusions related to the impacts of management on the crop water supply and other water regulation functions are necessarily based on inferences derived from proxy variables. Based on these knowledge gaps, we outlined several key avenues for future research on this topic

Environmental and biological specificities of the lowland alluvial soils in Central Serbia

Lowlands of Central Serbia are mostly covered by alluvial soils, while the natural vegetation types are various alluvial forests differentiated by the distance from the river bad (dynamics of soil water potential regimes) and gradients of soil structure, nutrient availability and soil pH (Marjanovic et al 2020). These forests have been heavily exploited for timber throughout the human history, but what has remained still represent significant hotspots of above and belowground biodiversity. The rare specificity of these ecosystems is the high diversity of truffles, fungi producing belowground fruiting bodies, among which the most prised white Piedmont truffle holds a special attention (Bragato and Marjanovic, 2016). In order to describe these special habitats of Balkan Peninsula, we have conducted various experiments, mostly concentrated on soils that support the fructification of this ecologically and economically important species. In this contribution we will summarize results on soil structure, soil water content dynamics, nutrient availability, seasonality of soil processes as well as seasonality of root associated mycobiomes of selected alluvial forests. We focus on connecting the fructification of white truffle to different soil factors (Marjanovic et al 2015), as well as on defining the differentiation factors that have been shaping root associated mycobiomes (Marjanovic et al 2020). The contribution was set to uncover as many soil traits as possible to reveal the answer to the question of what are the ideal conditions of soil/vegetation /climate combination that is suitable for such specific fungal communities.https://wcss.speak.co.uk/ Link ka projektu https://www.imsi.bg.ac.rs/en/evaluation-of-the-microplastic-in-the-soils-of-serbia-emiplast-sos-2

Diversity of true truffles (Tuber spp.) in European biodiversity hotspots, the role in soil bioremediation

Abstract book was not published as a official publication and can be viewed on the site of the congress: https://gsb2023.org

Impacts of soil management and climate on saturated and near-saturated hydraulic conductivity: analyses of the Open Tension-disk Infiltrometer Meta-database (OTIM)

Saturated and near-saturated soil hydraulic conductivities K-h (mmh(-1)) determine the partitioning of precipitation into surface runoff and infiltration and are fundamental to soils' susceptibility to preferential flow. Recent studies found indications that climate factors influence K-h, which is highly relevant in the face of climate change. In this study, we investigated relationships between pedoclimatic factors and K-h and also evaluated effects of land use and soil management. To this end, we collated the Open Tension-disk Infiltrometer Meta-database (OTIM), which contains 1297 individual data entries from 172 different publication sources. We analysed a spectrum of saturated and near-saturated hydraulic conductivities at matric potentials between 0 and 100 mm. We found that methodological details like the direction of the wetting sequence or the choice of method for calculating infiltration rates to hydraulic conductivities had a large impact on the results. We therefore restricted ourselves to a subset of 466 of the 1297 data entries with similar methodological approaches. Correlations between K-s and K-h at higher supply tensions decreased especially close to saturation, indicating a different flow mechanism at and very close to saturation than towards the dry end of the investigated tension range. Climate factors were better correlated with topsoil near-saturated hydraulic conductivities at supply tensions >= 30mm than soil texture, bulk density and organic carbon content. We find it most likely that the climate variables are proxies for soil macropore networks created by the respective biological activity, pedogenesis and climate-specific land use and management choices. Due to incomplete documentation in the source publications of OTIM, we were able to investigate only a few land use types and agricultural management practices. Land use, tillage system and soil compaction significantly influenced K-h, with effect sizes appearing comparable to the ones of soil texture and soil organic carbon. The data in OTIM show that experimental bias is present, introduced by the choice of measurement time relative to soil tillage, experimental design or data evaluation procedures. The establishment of best-practice rules for tension-disk infiltrometer measurements would therefore be helpful. Future studies are needed to investigate how climate shapes soil macropore networks and how land use and management can be adapted to improve soil hydraulic properties. Both tasks require large numbers of new measurement data with improved documentation on soil biology and land use and management history

Soil parameters explain short-distance variation in production of Tuber aestivum Vittad. in an oak plantation in the central-northern part of the Great Hungarian Plain (Jaszsag region, Hungary)

Truffles are ectomycorrhizal fungi of which several species can be commercially produced in man-made plan-tations using trees inoculated with their mycelia. The production in tree plantations is meant to increase the availability of economically valued ascocarps on the market and, in the same time preserve natural habitats from an excessive pressure of truffle hunters, as well as limit the damage that they may face due to the inadequate management of truffle-producing regions. Even though plantations of summer truffle (Tuber aestivum Vittad.) are the most ubiquitous in France and Italy, the Jaszsag region in Hungary has been recently recognized as one of the most productive areas in Europe. Forestry practice in this region often assumes the renovation of autochthonous tree stands by massive sowing of the tree seeds. One of these plantations of oaks (Quercus robur and Q. cerris), spontaneously colonized without artificial inoculation, appeared to produce the highest officially reported amounts of summer truffles in Europe. Therefore, the managing forestry company decided to apply practice that aimed at maintenance of high truffle production. Assuming that climatic and vegetation factors have no impact on ascocarp production within the stand, the plantation provided perfect experimental setup for investigating the influence of very localised soil properties and terrain morphology on truffle abundance. Therefore, in this contribution selected soil properties have been investigated in the entire plantation using specifically designed protocols to characterize the site and find out if the spatial variation in the truffle production can be explained by short-distance differences in soil properties. In the Chernozem soil type that dominated the entire forest stand, soil organic matter (SOM), soluble nitrogen (TN) and properties influenced by SOM and biological activity were positively correlated with high ascocarp production, whereas increased soil aggregate size and clay content was negatively correlated with productivity. The spatial distribution of these parameters appeared strongly related to ascocarp abundance distribution. Chernozem seems to be an ideal type of soil for Tuber aestivum ascocarp production, but terrain morphology and soil properties spatial pattern, which may have been historically influenced by fluvial and aeolian processes, can significantly influence the rate of production. In the case of non wood products such as truffles, forest management will necessarily have to consider the conditions of the soil environment that, influencing the presence of the truffle species, can make their production interesting in terms of income for the forest owner

Ecosystems supporting Tuber magnatum Pico production in Serbia experience specific soil environment seasonality that may facilitate truffle lifecycle completion

The production of Tuber magnatum Pico, the most prized and ecologically the most complex, constantly declines in natural habitats, while the success in plantation lacks. Contrary to the data from its habitats in Mediterranean sites, in Serbia this truffle colonizes typical developed alluvial forests, implying that dynamics of soil parameters and nutrient availability, rather than presence of specific ectomycorrhizal (EMC) plant host species or climate, might be crucial for supporting truffle life cycle. In order to reveal specific relationship generating soil microenvironments in productive and unproductive sites, soil water content (SWC) and temperature (T) were measured periodically in two depths, in a typical T. magnatum habitat in Western Serbia and compared to the atmospheric parameters (precipitation, air temperature). In three key time-points (spring soil water saturation, summer drought and autumn ascocarp production) soil was sampled through the profile and analyzed for nutrients that might be important for plant/fungal growth and ectomycorrhiza establishment. Results revealed that specific dynamics of soil water, aeration, available P and N, and possibly vegetation phenology, might be determining productivity of the microsites within the productive area. The hypothesis on soil water and nutrient availability seasonal dynamics, which might be controlling truffle establishment and life cycle completion in investigated area, was proposed

"La Viarte" project: The knowledge of whole surface variability within a precision viticulture approach

The knowledge of spatial variability is particularly important and several studies were carried out around the world, since it has been speculated that the overall grape quality is negatively affected by the vineyard heterogeneity. Based on this, a project was carried out in "LA VIARTE" (one important winery in the Friuli Colli Orientali D.O.C, area) with the aim to examine the spatial variability of the whole viticultural surface in order to make thereafter decisions about possible applications of variable-rate technologies or selected harvest. During 2009 and 2010 several soil parameters (texture, moisture, organic matter, etc.), NDVI, stem water potential, yield and grape quality parameters were collected in more than 100 plots well distributed in the different vineyards in several timings along the season. Data were coupled with GPS position and processed into maps that were overlaid in order to distinguish the overall variability of the vineyards. Correlations among yield, quality parameters and vigour were then evaluated for each cultivar, and based on vigour, selected areas were divided within the vineyards to ascertain the grape performance. In 2010 wines were made from 'Friulano', 'Sauvignon', 'Schioppettino' and 'Pignolo' vineyards keeping separated the opposite vigour areas, and they were tasted by an expert panel. The results of the sensory coupled with the chemical analysis of wines highlighted the possibility to separate grapes in order to obtain basic and premium wines within the same vineyard. The decision between keeping or reducing the intra-vineyard variability throughout the application of VRT, will be a decision of LA VIARTE owners, based on the requests of the future wine market