Interactive effects of Orobanche latisquama parasitism and drought stress in Salvia rosmarinus plants growing under Mediterranean field conditions.

Mediterranean-type ecosystems are recognized as critical hotspots for both biodiversity and climate change. Within these environments, plants often interact with diverse species, including holoparasitic plants, while simultaneously facing increasing episodes of precipitation shortages and rising temperatures. Here, we investigated the impact of Orobanche latisquama Reut.

Variability in strawberry tunnels impacts fruit quality and limits melatonin effects.

Background: Fluctuations in environmental conditions within fields and crop plant performance can greatly affect production and quality standards. These factors are particularly relevant for producers, who require sustained optimal production to profit from small margins. Fluctuations might be exacerbated at the end of the crop season, where neither of the aforementioned factors are optimal.

Fruit-specific effects of tryptophan and melatonin as active components to extend the functionality of red fruits during post-harvest processing.

Preserving quality attributes in the distribution chain is a challenging task, particularly in fruits with a brief shelf life. The application of melatonin in cherries, raspberries, strawberries and blueberries stored at room temperature was evaluated, as well as the effects of its precursor (tryptophan) to determine their specificity and interchangeable feasibility for post-harvest applications. The results demonstrated that melatonin is effective in all tested fruits, reducing deterioration rate and its severity, preserving fruit firmness and reducing darkening and weight loss.

Landscape crop diversity contributes to higher pollination effectiveness and positively affects rapeseed quality in Mediterranean agricultural landscapes.

Pollination is crucial for biodiversity and food security. Heterogeneous agricultural landscapes have a positive effect on pollinator abundance and enhance crop production and quality. In this study, we explored the effects of three landscape features (past crop diversity measured as the Equivalent Richness of crop functional Groups in the previous year [ERGp], semi-natural habitat percentage [SNH], and mean field size [MFS]) and pollinator densities (wild bees [WB] and honey bees [HB]) on pollination and seed quantity and quality in rapeseed crops.