OWERVIEW ON THE MANAGEMENT OF POWDERY MILDEW IN WHEAT (BLUMERIA GRAMINIS F. SP. TRITICI D. C. SPEER) IN THE CONTEXT OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis f.sp.tritici) is one of the most important wheat diseases that farmers claim first in cereals field in Romania. The incidence of powdery mildew in Romania varies from year to year depends on climatic conditions, cultivar susceptibility and inoculum amount. Most of winter wheat cultivars grown in Romania are moderate resistant and sensitive to powdery mildew therefore the risk of yield losses, especially during wet springs increases significantly without proper management strategies. The highest losses occur when the disease affects flag leaf, respectively 16% when the infection affects flag leaf after heading and 25% when the infection affects flag leaf before heading. In the context of climate change which impact host-pathogen relationship one of the best strategies to control powdery mildew in Romania is chemical control applied at stem elongation stage GS39 (flag leaf blade all visible) to booting stage GS43 (flag leaf sheath visibly swollen) and GS 59 (spike completely emerged above flag leaf ligule). However, changes in plant growth and physiology resulting from higher atmospheric CO2 concentration associated with changes in temperature and precipitation conditions can affect the efficacy of systemic fungicides altering their penetration, translocation and mode of action into the plants, which can determine a new fungicide application calendar.   Â

Assessment of the Impact of Population Reduction on Grasslands with a New “Tool”: A Case Study on the “Mountainous Banat” Area of Romania

The landscapes and, implicitly, the surfaces of secondary grasslands in the mountain areas have been intensively modified and transformed by humans. In this context, this paper analyses the spatial and temporal changes of grassland surfaces following the impact of human population reduction. Thus, the study proposes the implementation of the Grassland Anthropic Impact Index (GAII) as a “measurement tool” to functionally link the two components, grassland surface and human population. The spatiotemporal analyses are based on Corine Land Cover data and demographic data, processed via Geographic Information Systems (GIS) methods and the Land Change Modeler (LCM) tool. The research shows that over a period of 28 years, the population, which was continuously decreasing, caused a series of transformations to the grasslands over an area of 33343 ha. The influence of the reduction in the number of inhabitants was also demonstrated by the direction of the changes produced in the grassland surfaces: in the better populated areas, the grasslands expanded over lands with other uses, and in the sparsely populated areas, they were abandoned. GAII values generally increase with the decrease of the population in the target area, meaning that for an inhabitant (potential user) a greater grassland surface is reported, resulting in a greater responsibility for the management of this resource on a space and time scale. Following the evaluation of the trend of the last 28 years, it was observed that the depopulation of mountain areas can be seen as a threat to grassland ecosystems, either through the transition to other categories of use, or through abandonment. The implications of these phenomena are much broader: they produce chain reactions and affect other components of the regional geosystem