Control de legalidad a los actos del Consejo de Seguridad.: ¿Existe una vía jurisdiccional?

Ciertas medidas adoptadas por el Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas en el ámbito del combate al terrorismo han sido cuestionadas tanto por su posible carácter ultra vires, como por considerarse altamente defi cientes en lo concerniente a la protección de los Derechos Humanos de los individuos a quienes afectan. Ante una Corte Internacional de Justicia que parece inadecuada para asumir un rol más enérgico como medio de control de legalidad a los actos del Consejo, los Estados Miembros de Naciones Unidas han asumido dicho papel a fi n de garantizar la adecuada protección de sus ciudadanos. En este contexto, las acciones tomadas por los tribunales en el ámbito regional Europeo han servido como mecanismos de control de legalidad ante los excesos del Consejo. Sin embargo, confl ictos de solapamiento entre los distintos ordenamientos normativos en juego previenen que dichas entidades realicen adecuadamente esta función.Certain measures adopted by the United Nation´s Security Council in the fi eld of combating terrorism have been questioned not only because of their possible ultra vires nature, but because they are considered as highly defi cient with regards to the protection of Human Rights concerning the individuals whom they affect. Facing an International Court of Justice, which seems inadequate to assume a stronger role as a means of legality control of the Council´s acts, the Member States of the United Nations have assumed such a role in order to ensure an adequate protection of their citizens. Within this context, the actions taken by the courts at the European regional level have served as mechanisms of legality control to the excesses of the Council. However, confl icts concerning the overlapping of the normative orders involved prevent these entities from performing this function adequatel

A conservative pattern of water use, rather than deep or profuse rooting, is critical for the terminal drought tolerance of chickpea

Chickpea is mostly grown on stored soil moisture, and deep/profuse rooting has been hypothesized for almost three decades to be critical for improving chickpea tolerance to terminal drought. However, temporal patterns of water use that leave water available for reproduction and grain filling could be equally critical. Therefore, variation in water use pattern and root depth/density were measured, and their relationships to yield tested under fully irrigated and terminal drought stress, using lysimeters that provided soil volumes equivalent to field conditions. Twenty chickpea genotypes having similar plant phenology but contrasting for a field-derived terminal drought-tolerance index based on yield were used. The pattern of water extraction clearly discriminated tolerant and sensitive genotypes. Tolerant genotypes had a lower water uptake and a lower index of stomatal conductance at the vegetative stage than sensitive ones, while tolerant genotypes extracted more water than sensitive genotypes after flowering. The magnitude of the variation in root growth components (depth, length density, RLD, dry weight, RDW) did not distinguish tolerant from sensitive genotypes. The seed yield was not significantly correlated with the root length density (RLD) in any soil layers, whereas seed yield was both negatively related to water uptake between 23–38 DAS, and positively related to water uptake between 48–61 DAS. Under these conditions of terminal drought, the most critical component of tolerance in chickpea was the conservative use of water early in the cropping cycle, explained partly by a lower canopy conductance, which resulted in more water available in the soil profile during reproduction leading to higher reproductive success

Root hydraulics: The forgotten side of roots in drought adaptation

Roots have long been proposed as a major avenue of research to improve crop adaptation to water limitations. The simple assumption is that deeper and more profuse root systems could tap extra water from the soil profile and alleviate drought effects. However, after decades of research, success in breeding cultivars with improved root systems is lagging behind. Here, we attempt to analyze the possible reasons for this, and re-focus on what root traits might provide the most promising avenues for drought adaptation. We approach the root system from the angle of water extraction, using data from a lysimetric system that allows monitoring and comparing plant water use over the entire crop life cycle and yield, and analyze whether and how differences in water extraction lead to improved yield across different crops. The main message from that analysis is that water extraction during reproduction and grain filling is critical and comes from a number of traits that influence the rate at which plant use the available water before and during stress. Roots may have an effect on this, not from the traditionally thought density or depth, but rather from their hydraulic characteristics. Plants can indeed control water use by controlling leaf area development and this is a “long term” control. Plants also control water losses by controlling stomata opening under high vapor pressure deficit (VPD) conditions, in a transient manner. Both processes (leaf development and stomata opening) are mostly controlled by hydraulic processes. The role of roots in drought adaptation could be there, along with the soil, in setting an hydraulic environment that allow plants to use water in a way that allow maximizing water use for these critical stages

Seed Number and 100-Seed Weight of Pearl Millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) Respond Differently to Low Soil Moisture in Genotypes Contrasting for Drought Tolerance

Water stress after flowering, one of the major factors limiting yields of pearl millet, affects both seed setting and grain filling and is a consequence of more/less water used prior to anthesis. However, whether genotypes have different sensitivities for seed setting and filling under drought, if exposed to similar stress intensity, is unclear. Experiments were conducted in two pairs of pearl millet genotypes, that is, PRLT2/89-33 and H77/833-2, 863B and 841B, contrasting for terminal drought tolerance, and two genotypes, ICMR 01046 and ICMR 01029 (IL-QTLs), introgressed with a terminal drought tolerance QTL from PRLT2/89- 33 into H77/833-2. Total seed weight, panicle number, 100-seed weight, seed number and stover biomass were measured at different soil moistures and throughout grain filling. Sensitive H77/833-2 had higher seed number and yield under well-watered (WW) conditions than in PRLT2/89-33 and IL-QTLs. Upon increases in water stress intensity, H77/833-2 suffered losses mostly in stover biomass (45 %) and seed number (60 %) at 0.3 FTSW whereas the biomass and seed number of PRLT2/89-33 decreased little (20 % and 25 %). The 100-seed weight of H77/833-2 decreased only 20 % under stress. Tolerant 863B also maintained a higher seed number and biomass under water stress than 841B. Grain filling duration in PRLT2/89-33 and IL-QTLs was similar to that of H77/833-2 under WW conditions but lasted longer than in H77833-2 under water stress (WS). Similarly, seed growth of 863B was longer than 841B under WS. It is concluded that the higher seed yield of tolerant parents PRLT2/89-33 and 863B, and of ILQTLs under WS was explained by the retention of a higher number of seeds than in sensitive lines, while the decrease in the 100-seed weight was proportionally less than the decrease in seed number. Phenotype with lesser number and larger size of panicles and larger grain size, like genotypes PRLT2/89-33 and 863B, withstood post-anthesis water stress better. IL-QTL inherited part of these characteristics, indicating a role for the terminal drought QTL in maintaining larger seed number and higher 100-seed weight. The continuous stover biomass increase under WW in H77/833-2, due to tillering, might indicate that tiller growth and grains are in competition for resources after anthesis, and this may relate to the relatively shorter grain-filling period

Small temporal differences in water uptake among varities of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) are critical for grain yield under terminal drought.

Intuitively, access to water from the soil at key phenological stages is important for adaptation to drought. This study aimed to assess the temporal pattern of water extraction under terminal drought stress.

Constitutive water-conserving mechanisms are correlated with the terminal drought tolerance of pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.]

Pearl millet, a key staple crop of the semi-arid tropics, is mostly grown in water-limited conditions, and improving its performance depends on how genotypes manage limited water resources. This study investigates whether the control of water loss under non-limiting water conditions is involved in the terminal drought tolerance of pearl millet. Two pairs of tolerant×sensitive pearl millet genotypes, PRLT 2/89-33–H77/833-2 and 863B-P2–ICMB 841-P3, and near-isogenic lines (NILs), introgressed with a terminal drought tolerance quantitative trait locus (QTL) from the donor parent PRLT 2/89-33 into H77/833-2 (NILs-QTL), were tested. Upon exposure to water deficit, transpiration began to decline at lower fractions of transpirable soil water (FTSW) in tolerant than in sensitive genotypes, and NILs-QTL followed the pattern of the tolerant parents. The transpiration rate (Tr, in g water loss cm−2 d−1) under well-watered conditions was lower in tolerant than in sensitive parental genotypes, and the Tr of NILs-QTL followed the pattern of the tolerant parents. In addition, Tr measured in detached leaves (g water loss cm−2 h−1) from field-grown plants of the parental lines showed lower Tr values in tolerant parents. Defoliation led to an increase in Tr that was higher in sensitive than in tolerant genotypes. The differences in Tr between genotypes was not related to the stomatal density. These results demonstrate that constitutive traits controlling leaf water loss under well-watered conditions correlate with the terminal drought tolerance of pearl millet. Such traits may lead to more water being available for grain filling under terminal drought

Coping with drought: Resilience versus risk. Targeting the most suitable G*E*M options by crop simulation modeling*

Crop production is axiomatically related to water consumption of transpiring leaves. Crop adaptation to water limitation then becomes an exercise of matching water supply and demand in away that the crop has enough water to complete its cropping cycle. Weather conditions vary greatly across years within environments while both weather and soil conditions vary across locations, which means that drought scenario are extremely variable and these need to be properly characterized as a pre-requisite to undertake drought research. Once the weather scenarios are defined, traits contributing to the crop adaptation to any of these scenarios need to be identified.We believe that much of these traits revolve around the need to optimize plant water use and make it efficient, together with the need to maximize water capture from the soil.Optimization of plant water use consist in identifying traits that will ensure maximum crop growth while keeping sufficient water for the grain filling period, and it deals with controlling water losses, and minimizing leaf canopy development. While tapping more water is surely important, the timing of water extraction to critical crop stages, e.g. the grain filling stage, is even more critical. It depends in great part on the way water has been managed by the plant at earlier stages, in particular to the capacity to develop a smaller crop canopy, or the capacity to restrict plant transpiration, especially under high evaporative demand. Clearly, the development of cultivars capable of better performance under water limited conditions is the result of many possible characteristics that interact with one another andwith the environment, and it is difficult to experimentally determinewhich among these traits has a predominant effect on yield in a given situation. Crop simulation modeling comes in to help to navigate biological complexity by allowing to test the effect of traits on yield acrossmany years of weather andmany locations. It also helps combining both agronomic and genetic options to maximize crop production at the plot level

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) genotypes tolerant to intermittent drought maintain a high harvest index and have small leaf canopy under stress

Intermittent drought, which varies in intensity, severely limits groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) yields. Experiments were conducted to assess root development, water uptake, transpiration efficiency, yield components and their relationships, in 20 groundnut genotypes under well watered (WW), and mild (DS-1), medium (DS-2) and severe (DS-3) intermittent stress. Pod yield decreased 70%, 55% and 35% under severe, medium and mild stress, respectively. Pod yield varied among genotypes, and showed significant genotype-by-treatment effects. Root length density (RLD) varied among genotypes before and after stress, although RLD did not discriminate tolerant from sensitive lines. Total water uptake and RLD under water stress had a weakly significant relationship. Water extraction from the soil profile was highest under severe stress. Water uptake varied among genotypes in all water regimes, but correlated with pod yield under WW conditions. The relative harvest index (HI) (i.e. the ratio of the HI under stress to HI under WW conditions) was closely related to the pod yield in all three intermittent stresses (R2 = 0.68 in DS-1; R2 = 0.65 in DS-2; R2 = 0.86 in DS-3) and was used as an index of stress tolerance. Under medium and severe stresses, the relative HI was negatively related to plant leaf weight (R2 = 0.79 in DS-2; R2 = 0.53 in DS-3), but less so under mild stress (R2 = 0.31). The results suggest that under intermittent stress, genotypes with a lower leaf area may use water more sparingly during the drying cycle with less damaging consequences for reproduction and pod

The future of dryland cereals and legumes for the smallholder farmer in the semi-arid tropics

Besides a major financial crisis since 2008, a major inflation and volatility of the price of the most important staple foods such as rice or wheat is threatening global food security, especially for the millions of poor in developing countries. Food production has returned to the top of the political agenda worldwide. Today, we are at a crossroads. About 850 million people still go to bed hungry. Food production needs to be increased by about 70% in the next 40 years to feed over 9 billion people by 2050 and food systems have to be more inclusive of the poorest population. To achieve this increase and food access for the most vulnerable, many challenges need to be addressed, including a changing climate and shrinking natural resources. Innovations such as high yield wheat and rice cultivars and fertilizers sparked a green revolution in South Asia in the 1960s but they are now showing certain limits in terms of sustainability and profitability

Understanding crop physiological processes for climate resilience

As everybody knows, the climate is changing and over the next decade will be putting an increasing strain on agriculture production. This paper aims at putting some focus on what can really be addressed (the change in temperature) from what really cannot be predicted and dealt with (rainfall). But even the effect of one factor like temperature triggers a complex myriad of effects and the paper structures what needs to be done in relation to temperature, and focuses on recently discovered mechanism to adapt to a change in temperature. The paper then briefly reviews its biological basis, the mean to phenotype for it at a high rate and precision, and how the use of crop simulation can help us predict the effect of this trait on yield..