Citrus is the world's largest fruit category, yet it is frequently damaged by weeds during cultivation and management. As a green cultivation measure, covering crops in orchards effectively controls weeds and enhances soil quality. At present, the research on covering crops is mostly focused on soil, but there is still a lack of research on how crops affect citrus trees. This study aims to provide theoretical support for the widespread adoption of the green management practices. The previous research of us found that rattail fescue and vicia villosa had notably enhanced the organic matter and alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen levels in orchard soils. Consequently, this study treated citrus orchards with sowing rattail fescue and vicia villosa between rows, with manual tillage serving as the control, to investigate the impact of two-year grass cultivation on N metabolism in citrus roots. Results indicated that both types of grass significantly enhanced amino acid metabolism in citrus roots at depths of 0-20 cm, significantly increasing activities of nitrate reductase, nitrite reductase, glutamine synthetase, NADH-glutamate synthetase, and NADPH-glutamate dehydrogenase, as well as expression levels of NR and NiR. Rattail fescue demonstrated superior effects. There was no discernible pattern in amino acid levels at depths of 20-40 cm, with both grass types significantly increasing NR, NADH-GOGAT enzyme activity, and also increasing gene expression levels for NiR, GDH1, and GDH2. Both types of grass significantly promoted N metabolism in citrus roots at depths of 0-20 cm, with rattail fescue outperforming vicia villosa.

Societal Impact StatementIntervention strategies that involve supplementing crop-lands with silicon have significant scope for carbon capture and drought mitigation, offering wide-ranging societal impacts. These include contributing to decarbonisation goals, enhancing food security, providing economic benefits and reducing environmental damage associated with intensive agronomic practices. This article highlights emerging evidence that suggests elevated atmospheric CO2 and water limitation may impair silicon accumulation in plants. While this does not negate the outlined societal benefits, we argue that these limitations must be thoroughly quantified and incorporated into large-scale implementation plans to ensure the reliability and effectiveness of silicon intervention strategies. Silicon accumulation in plants is increasingly recognised as playing an important functional role in alleviating environmental stresses. Most research to date has focussed on relieving agronomic stresses in crops, including pest and pathogen damage, soil salinity and drought. Recently, attention has turned to large-scale silicon application to agricultural landscapes as a potential anthropogenic climate change mitigation strategy. This includes silicon fertilisation to enhance soil carbon storage through advanced weathering of silicates, or by incorporating carbon in phytoliths in plant tissues. While these geoengineering approaches have potential, they could also present significant challenges. This article explores the opportunities and limitations for silicon-based interventions in mitigating the impacts of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and increased incidences of drought. We argue that despite the promise of silicon supplementation in reducing plant stress under climate change, research paradoxically shows that these very climate conditions can significantly impede silicon accumulation in plants. We propose a framework to guide the development of silicon intervention strategies to mitigate climate change and the research questions that should be addressed to ensure their effectiveness under future environmental conditions.

Cold climate viticulture is challenged by climatic variability, including increased frost risk, shorter growing seasons, and unpredictable weather events that impact vine productivity and grape quality. Global warming is altering traditional viticulture zones, prompting the exploration of new regions for grape cultivation, the selection of climate-resilient cultivars, and the implementation of adaptive practices. This review synthesizes recent advances in adaptive viticulture practices and plant growth regulator applications, highlighting novel molecular and physiological insights on cold stress resilience and berry quality. Key strategies include delayed winter pruning to mitigate frost damage, osmoprotectant application to improve freeze tolerance, and canopy management techniques (cluster thinning and defoliation) to enhance berry ripening and wine composition. Their effectiveness depends on vineyard microclimate, soil properties and variety-specific physiological response. Cover cropping is examined for its role in vine vigor regulation, improving soil microbial diversity, and water retention, though its effectiveness depends on soil type, participation patterns, and vineyard management practices. Recent transcriptomic and metabolomic studies have provided new regulatory mechanisms in cold stress adaptation, highlighting the regulatory roles of abscisic acid, brassinosteroids, ethylene, and salicylic acid in dormancy induction, oxidative stress response, and osmotic regulation. Reflective mulch technologies are currently examined for their ability to enhance light interception, modulating secondary metabolite accumulation, improving technological maturity (soluble solids, pH, and titratable acidity) and enhancing phenolic compounds content. The effectiveness of these strategies remains highly site-specific, influenced by variety selection and pruning methods particularly due to their differences on sugar accumulation and berry weight. Future research should prioritize long-term vineyard trials to refine these adaptive strategies, integrate genetic and transcriptomic insights into breeding programs to improve cold hardiness, and develop precision viticulture tools tailored to cold climate vineyard management.

Cover crops are increasingly recognized for their role in enhancing the multifunctionality and health of soil. Previous studies have focused largely on the effects of cover crop residues and have overlooked the impacts of living cover crops on the soil biochemical processes and nutrient cycling. The aim of this study is to bridge this gap by examining the effects of different types of living cover crops, such as legumes, grass, and their mixtures, on the soil nutrients and microbial communities. We conducted a field experiment in northeastern China using an Alfisol and intercropped cover crops with maize. During the growing season, we characterized microbial biomass and community structure using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis and assessed microbial activity through enzyme activities related to carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Additionally, we employed the enzyme vector model to evaluate potential microbial metabolic limitations. Compared with the control plots without cover crops, the legume treatment significantly increased dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and available nitrogen, particularly altering the microbial community structure during the maize growth stages. This change shifted the microbial functional group ratios towards enhanced C acquisition by soil microbes, indicating alleviated microbial C limitation in legume treatment. In contrast, the grass treatment maintained the soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) levels, and increased the total microbial biomass at the later growth stage. Compared with those in the other treatments, the biomass of bacterial groups in the grass treatment was more responsive, and the activities of the C, N and P enzymes were higher. Furthermore, the mixture treatment merged the benefits of both the legume and grass cover crops, enhancing both DOC and available N contents and maintaining SOC and TN levels. The mixture treatment significantly affected the microbial community structure without altering microbial nutrient limitations. Thus, the mixture treatment is recommended for application in cover crop-maize intercropping systems. In conclusion, our study captured the temporal dynamic shifts in the microbial functional groups associated with different microbial life strategies from intercropping different types of living cover crops with maize. This research refines our understanding of the role of cover crops in supporting belowground ecosystems and highlights the importance of living mulch in sustainable agricultural management.

The response of soils to extreme weather events will become increasingly important in the future as more frequent and severe floods and droughts are expected to subject soils to drying and rewetting cycles as a result of climate change. These extreme events will be experienced against a backdrop of overall warming. Farmers are adopting cover cropping as a sustainable management practice to increase soil organic matter and benefit soil health. Cover crops may also increase the resilience of soils to help mitigate the impacts of climate change. We examined the legacy of warming and cover crops on the response of soil microbial function to repeated drying and rewetting cycles. We introduced open-top chambers to warm the soil surface of a field plot experiment in which cover crops (single-species monocultures and 4-species polycultures) were grown over the summer after harvest and before planting autumn sown cash crops in a cereal rotation. Soil samples were collected from warmed and ambient areas of the experimental plots in spring, before harvesting the cereal crop. Warming significantly increased, and cover crops significantly decreased, the abundance of genes encoding fungal beta-glucosidase. We quantified respiration (a measure of soil microbial function) with high-frequency CO2 flux measurements after 0, 1, 2, 4 or 8 wet/dry cycles imposed in the laboratory and the addition of barley grass powder substrate at a rate of 10 mg g-1 soil. We observed lower cumulative substrate-induced respiration in soils previously planted with cover crop mixtures than expected from the average of the same species grown in monoculture. Repeated drying and rewetting cycles increased the cumulative substrate-induced respiration rate observed, suggesting that repeated perturbations selected for a community adapted to processing the barley shoot powder more quickly. When we calculated the cumulative respiration after 8 wet/dry cycles, relative to cumulative respiration after 0 wet/dry cycles (which we infer represents the extent to which microbial communities adapted to repeated drying and rewetting cycles), our data revealed that the legacy of warming significantly reduced soil microbial community adaptation, but the legacy of cover crops significantly increased, soil microbial community adaptation. This adaptation of the soil microbial community was positively correlated with the concentration of water-extractable organic carbon in the soils before imposing the drying and rewetting cycles and/or adding the substrate. We conclude that cover crops may enhance the ability of the soil microbial community to adapt to drought events and mitigate the impact of warming, possibly due to the provision of labile organic carbon for the synthesis of osmolytes which then prime the decomposition of labile plant material upon rewetting.

Introduction. The task of high-quality cleaning of root crops from soil is relevant at all stages of preparing roots for further processing, feeding to animals, and selling. In the machines for cleaning root crops from soil, there is mostly used water. With the water consumption for washing a unit of mass of soiled root crops up to 200-400%, the use of water creates a huge problem including soiled water treatment. The dry method of cleaning root crops is most common in practice and involves the use of appropriate machines, which are not always able to provide the required quality of the finished product. Therefore, the problem of developing a root crop cleaner by the dry cleaning method and substantiating the cleaner optimal parameters to ensure the required quality of the finished product is important and relevant. Aim of the Study. The study is aimed at substantiating theoretically the parameters of a root cleaner with adjacent rollers rotating at different frequencies. Materials and Methods. The subject of the study is the technological process of cleaning root crops with the dry method. To realize this process, there has been developed a cleaner of root crops from soil, the key features of which are the use of a roller transport-cleaning working element and the ability of adjacent rollers rotate at different frequencies. Individual design parameters of the proposed cleaner have been substantiated theoretically. Results. There have been determined the forces acting on the root crop when it is located on rotating rollers. There has been found the dependence of the angular displacement phi(t), angular velocity omega(t) of the root crop located on rotating rollers, and the dependence of the coefficient of root crop sliding friction on the rollers on the angle alpha, which determines the relationship between the main design parameters of the working element, in particular, the diameter of the rollers and the distance between them, and the physical and mechanical properties of the root crops. Discussion and Conclusion. The studies of the root crop cleaner conducted in laboratory conditions have confirmed the results of theoretical studies and showed that with a length of the transport-cleaning working element of 2 m within a time of 34,4 s it is possible to achieve an efficient cleaning of 78% when the cleaner is equipped with 16 rollers and the ratio of the rotation frequencies for odd and even rollers is 220/250 min-1. The study results are useful for creating and modernizing technical means for post-harvest processing of root crops, conducting further studies on technological improvement of similar means of mechanization of agricultural processes, and for using in the educational process to train technical specialists.

Agriculture, including horticulture, can support and provide food for the global population, meeting both nutritional and economic needs. However, plant diseases induced by phytopathogens result in enormous losses in horticultural crop production through decreasing yields and the quality of crops. Notably, fungal phytopathogens are responsible for over 40% of these diseases. Among them, Fusarium represents a significant group of pathogenic fungi that inflict damage and reduce crop yields, thereby contributing to declines in food supplies. Conventional approaches to addressing these issues involve methods such as intercropping, crop rotation, soil solarization, and the use of synthetic fungicides. However, these methods may cause environmental problems, increase disease resistance, and result in the emergence of new pathogens with elevated resistance levels. Furthermore, the use of gene editing technology to prevent Fusarium diseases faces regulatory approval challenges and health risks. Biological control is recognized as an efficient strategy for managing a wide array of plant diseases by employing bacteria and fungi as agents to combat phytopathogens. Trichoderma is a widely recognized fungal genus employed as a biological control agent, with the potential to be a commercial biological control agent to suppress the growth of Fusarium. This article explores Trichoderma's role in managing Fusarium-related diseases in horticultural crops, highlighting its potential as a biocontrol agent and the challenges in scaling up its utilization.

Anthropogenic activities have resulted in land desertification in various regions of the world, leading to the degradation of critical soil characteristics such as organic matter (OM) content, nutrient stock, and prevailing biodiversity. Restoring such degraded soils through organic matter amendments and diversified crop rotations is thus an intrinsic part of organic farming. This review discusses a wide range of organic farming impacts on soil health and crop productivity by focusing on organic fertilizers and crop diversification. Conventional fertilizers were considered vital for agricultural production to harvest high crop yields. Nevertheless, they are now deemed as environmentally hazardous and an obstacle to sustainable agroecosystems due to intensive chemical inputs that damage the soil over time and have long-lasting impacts. Conventional fertilization results in nutrient depletion, loss of microbial diversity, organic matter reduction, and deterioration of physical characteristics of the soil. Conversely, organic fertilization makes use of naturally existing resources to improve soil health. Organic amendments such as biochar, manure, and fermented grass improve soil's physical, chemical, and biological properties and promote the growth and diversity of beneficial soil microorganisms-important in nutrient cycling and soil stability. They facilitate the uptake of nutrients, hinder crop pathogen growth, mitigate heavy metals, and decompose xenobiotic organic substances. Moreover, growing cover crops is also a major strategy to improve soil health. Diversified crop rotation with combinatorial use of organic fertilizers may improve soil health and agricultural yields without any detrimental impacts on the environment and soil, ensuring sustainable food production, safety, and security. This integrated approach contributes to minimizing the use of chemical fertilizers and their effects on environmental health. It also contributes to reducing agricultural inputs along with enhancing OM, soil microbial diversity and biomass, nitrogen fixation, and carbon sequestration. Therefore, cover crops and organic fertilization may offer sustainable agroecosystems and climate change mitigation.

Maize and wheat are two important cereal crops for the food security of the world population. However, constant climate change and the intensification of anthropic activities have intensified the emergence of stressful environmental in the various agricultural production systems around the world. Therefore, in this study we evaluate the chlorophyll content, photosynthesis, transpiration and grain yield of maize and wheat crops exposed to soil salinity, drought and high temperatures and determine the damage intensity of these stressing conditions and the theoretical multifactorial damage intensity. Field experiments were conducted during the 2022 and 2023 agricultural seasons in the Yaqui Valley, Sonora, Mexico. The treatments consisted of the cultivation of maize and wheat in three stressful production environments (soil salinity, drought and high temperatures) and a non-stressful production environment (Control), with four repetitions. The tolerance and intensity index of abiotic stresses, as well as the intensity of theoretical multifactorial stress (salinity, drought and high temperatures), for morphological traits and grain yield, were calculated. The results reported that physiological traits and yield of maize and wheat are severely affected by drought stress conditions. High temperatures are the second abiotic stress factor that most limits physiological traits and grain yield of maize and wheat crops, being more harmful than soil salinity. The theoretical multifactorial stress has a greater negative impact on the yield of the elite maize and wheat varieties. The sum of a stressful environmental factor increases the intensity of multifactorial stress on grain yield of both cereal crops, especially for maize crop.

Grain legumes, such as faba bean (Vicia faba L.), are crucial for protein supply and soil fertility enhancement through nitrogen fixation. However, faba bean cultivation is challenged by Lygus plant bugs (Hemiptera: Miridae), which cause significant crop damage and seed quality loss. This study aimed to evaluate Lygus preferences between faba bean and alternative crops to develop effective management strategies. We conducted choice bioassay experiments under laboratory conditions and field plot experiments. Laboratory results indicated sex-based host preferences, with males favoring faba beans and females preferring canola. Field studies showed that faba beans adjacent to canola had higher Lygus abundance and damage compared to those next to peas, flax, and safflower. Safflower and sunflower demonstrated potential as trap crops to reduce Lygus damage to faba beans. Our findings provide insights into Lygus behavior and suggest that a combination of trap cropping, and targeted insecticide use could mitigate the impact of Lygus infestations on faba bean cultivation.