Sustainable Orchard Management in Mediterranean Fruit Trees and Vineyard Cultivation

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to present this Special Issue, focused on the topic of sustainable orchard management in Mediterranean fruit trees and vineyard cultivation, intended to present the state of the art and to highlight and suggest new ideas and contributions to this topic of particular significance for both scientists and growers.

Fruit tree orchards and vineyards represent interesting case studies on the potential tradeoffs and synergies of ecosystem services in the context of the Mediterranean cultural environments.

This Special Issue aims to publish sound experimental evidence of environmentally friendly and sustainable orchard management methods and practices in Mediterranean fruit trees and vineyard cultivation, both in eco-physiological and productive terms at the individual plant level, as well as on the entire agro-ecosystem level. According to the general aims and scope of the journal Agronomy, we encourage colleagues to publish their experimental and theoretical research in the area of Mediterranean agro-ecosystems, with special emphasis on the impact of management practices adopted in fruit tree crops on ecosystem services (ES) and on the real comparative value of alternative management models with respect to conventional management.

In particular, topics, such as the C sink function of fruit tree ecosystems and the regulating ES; the reduction of soil erosion, crop water footprint, and greenhouse gas emissions; the management of plant nutrition and of the soil organic matter; the integration of crop and livestock systems; the weed evolutionary dynamics and its management strategies; the use of cover crops; the recycling of pruning residuals, etc., up to the verification of the effects put in place on the main crop; the evaluation of the different potential ES offered with regard also to biodiversity; and the resilience of the Mediterranean fruit trees and vineyard agro-ecosystems, will be particularly welcome, as well as the analysis and the presentation of indicators and models to quantify the related ES offered by the various management systems.

Prof. Luciano Gristina
Prof. Ettore Barone
Prof. Rosario Di Lorenzo
Dr. Antonino Pisciotta
Guest Editors

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