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Horticulturae
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Biosaline Agriculture
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Biosaline Agriculture

A topical collection in Horticulturae (ISSN 2311-7524). This collection belongs to the section "Biotic and Abiotic Stress".

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Editors

Dr. Antonella Castagna

E-Mail Website
Collection Editor
Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, I-56124 Pisa, Italy
Interests: plant-environment interactions; early defensive mechanisms; nutraceutical quality of plant food; ultraviolet radiation; edible coatings, antioxidants
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Marco Santin

E-Mail Website
Collection Editor
Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, I-56124 Pisa, Italy
Interests: plant-environment interactions; early defensive mechanisms; nutraceutical quality of plant food; ultraviolet radiation; edible coatings; antioxidants
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Topical Collection Information

Dear Colleagues,

One of the greatest and most urgent challenges of agriculture today is providing enough food for the ever-increasing population worldwide, a mission that is complicated by the current threat of climate changes. Among the different factors affecting the yield and quality of produce, soil salinity and water deficiency are the two main limiting environmental constraints in arid and semi-arid regions. The increasingly frequent extreme climatic events will lead to an increment of drought- and/or salt-affected areas worldwide, inevitably resulting in a reduction in crop yield. Moreover, soil salinization is exacerbated by incorrect agricultural practices, such as irrigation with highly salty water and excessive use of fertilizers. There is therefore a great need to move towards more sustainable production systems.

This Topical Collection on “Biosaline agriculture” welcomes research articles, reviews, short notes and opinion articles related to any useful and smart management strategy to allow better production and enhance yield under such unfavourable conditions, including the restoration of marginal lands, use of salt-tolerant genotypes, employment of halophytes as desalting species but also as valuable new cash crops, aquaponics and wetlands production systems, molecular and non-molecular tools to improve salt resistance, use of plant growth regulators, etc. Contributions dealing with updates on physiological, biochemical and molecular mechanisms at the base of plant tolerance to drought and salinity are also welcomed.

Dr. Antonella Castagna
Dr. Marco Santin
Collection Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the collection website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Horticulturae is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • salt stress
  • drought
  • halophytes
  • crop tolerance
  • smart agriculture
  • crop yield
  • climate changes
  • plant resistance mechanisms

Published Papers (4 papers)

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2024

Jump to: 2022

13 pages, 938 KiB  
Article
Growing Salicornia europaea L. with Saline Hydroponic or Aquaculture Wastewater
by Martina Puccinelli, Ilaria Marchioni, Luca Botrini, Giulia Carmassi, Alberto Pardossi and Laura Pistelli
Horticulturae 2024, 10(2), 196; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae10020196 - 19 Feb 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1040
Abstract
Among halophyte plants, Salicornia species (also known as glasswort or sea asparagus) are increasingly grown in open fields and greenhouses for edible or non-edible purposes. Their salinity tolerance makes it possible to irrigate Salicornia plants with saline waters and even seawater, which cannot [...] Read more.
Among halophyte plants, Salicornia species (also known as glasswort or sea asparagus) are increasingly grown in open fields and greenhouses for edible or non-edible purposes. Their salinity tolerance makes it possible to irrigate Salicornia plants with saline waters and even seawater, which cannot be used by other crop species. In this work, S. europaea (L.) was cultivated in pots under the typical climatic conditions of the fall season in the Mediterranean region and irrigated with non-saline standard nutrient solution (SNS) or saline wastewater discharged from a greenhouse semi-closed hydroponic (substrate) culture of tomato or a saltwater recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) with Gilthead sea bream (Spaurus aurata L., which was used as such or after dilution (50:50) with SNS. Plant growth was not significantly affected by the composition of irrigation water, while higher antioxidant capacity (measured using the DPPH assay) and concentration of photosynthetic pigments, phenols, flavonoids, and ascorbic acid were found in the shoots of SNS plants than in those of plants irrigated with wastewater. The level of lipid peroxidation and H2O2 production significantly increased in the SNS plants, which also showed higher activity of superoxide dismutase and lower activity of catalase. These results suggest that S. europaea can be cultivated using wastewater with moderate to high salinity discharged from greenhouse hydroponic crops or RASs, and that salt is not strictly required for the growth of this species. Using non-saline nutrient solution can result in moderate oxidative stress that improves the shoot quality of S. europaea. Full article
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2022

Jump to: 2024

16 pages, 2151 KiB  
Article
Nutritional Composition and Bioactivity of Salicornia europaea L. Plants Grown in Monoculture or Intercropped with Tomato Plants in Salt-Affected Soils
by Antonella Castagna, Giada Mariottini, Morena Gabriele, Vincenzo Longo, Aymen Souid, Xavier Dauvergne, Christian Magné, Giulia Foggi, Giuseppe Conte, Marco Santin and Annamaria Ranieri
Horticulturae 2022, 8(9), 828; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8090828 - 8 Sep 2022
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2468
Abstract
The increasing salinization of agricultural soils urges us to find alternative and sustainable farming systems in order to allow the exploitation of areas that are otherwise becoming less suitable for conventional crops. Thanks to their adaptation to extreme saline conditions, halophytes are promising [...] Read more.
The increasing salinization of agricultural soils urges us to find alternative and sustainable farming systems in order to allow the exploitation of areas that are otherwise becoming less suitable for conventional crops. Thanks to their adaptation to extreme saline conditions, halophytes are promising plants for resilient farming systems, such as intercropping with glycophytes, to ameliorate their productivity in saline soils. This research aimed to evaluate whether the nutritional profile and the content of some health-promoting compounds of the edible portion of Salicornia europaea were influenced by its cultivation in consociation with tomato plants. Moreover, the antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties of S. europaea were studied to characterize its bioactivity. The farming system did not influence the concentration of nutrients and bioactive compounds, except for flavonoids. The antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties of Salicornia extract suggested the importance of this halophyte for animal and human health. Full article
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21 pages, 892 KiB  
Article
Growth and Mineral Relations of Beta vulgaris var. cicla and Beta vulgaris ssp. maritima Cultivated Hydroponically with Diluted Seawater and Low Nitrogen Level in the Nutrient Solution
by Martina Puccinelli, Giulia Carmassi, Luca Botrini, Antonio Bindi, Lorenzo Rossi, Juan Francisco Fierro-Sañudo, Alberto Pardossi and Luca Incrocci
Horticulturae 2022, 8(7), 638; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8070638 - 14 Jul 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2481
Abstract
There is an increasing interest in the use of seawater in horticulture. The objective of this study was to evaluate Beta vulgaris var. cicla (Swiss chard) and its wild ancestor B. vulgaris spp. maritima (sea beet) as potential crop species for seawater hydroponics [...] Read more.
There is an increasing interest in the use of seawater in horticulture. The objective of this study was to evaluate Beta vulgaris var. cicla (Swiss chard) and its wild ancestor B. vulgaris spp. maritima (sea beet) as potential crop species for seawater hydroponics or aquaponics. Both species were grown in a floating system for leaf production with recurrent harvests. The nutrient solutions contained different concentrations of nitrate (1 and 10 mM) and a synthetic sea salt (0 and 10 g L−1), in a factorial design, where the saline solution with a low nitrate level intended to mimic the typical nutritional conditions of saltwater aquaponics. In both species, increasing the salinity or reducing the N level in the nutrient solution reduced the crop yield and total dry biomass. In both Swiss chard and sea beet, the use of saline water resulted in a lower leaf concentration of K, Ca, Cu, and Mn, and a greater content of Na and Cl. In Swiss chard, an increase in Na and Cl and a decrease in K leaf content were found in successive harvests. On average, sea beet showed a higher leaf production and accumulation of nitrate than Swiss chard. Full article
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22 pages, 2446 KiB  
Article
Magnetized Water and Proline to Boost the Growth, Productivity and Fruit Quality of ‘Taifi’ Pomegranate Subjected to Deficit Irrigation in Saline Clay Soils of Semi-Arid Egypt
by Sameh K. Okba, Yasser Mazrou, Gehad B. Mikhael, Mohamed E. H. Farag and Shamel M. Alam-Eldein
Horticulturae 2022, 8(7), 564; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8070564 - 21 Jun 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2246
Abstract
Water scarcity is becoming a global problem. The shift from traditional irrigation systems to deficit irrigation increased soil salinity, particularly in clay soils. The use of magnetized water (MW) and biostimulants can induce plant resistance to drought and salinity stress. To assess the [...] Read more.
Water scarcity is becoming a global problem. The shift from traditional irrigation systems to deficit irrigation increased soil salinity, particularly in clay soils. The use of magnetized water (MW) and biostimulants can induce plant resistance to drought and salinity stress. To assess the role of MW and proline (P) on ‘Taifi’ pomegranate shrubs’ growth, productivity, and fruit quality under such conditions, a split-plots experiment was conducted for two seasons using three irrigation levels (100%, 75%, and 50%), based on the crop water requirements (CWR), and four treatments including foliar spray of tap water (control) and P, irrigation with MW, and MW + P. The most pronounced effect was referred to MW + P at 75% CWR that improved shrubs’ chlorophyll content and nutritional status, reduced endogenous proline content, and enhanced vegetative growth with minimum consumptive water use (CWU), optimum water use efficiency (WUE), maximum water productivity (WP), utmost yield and average fruit weight, lowest percentage of fruit cracking, and fairly good total soluble solids (TSS), vitamin C and anthocyanin contents. Overall, MW + P at 75% CWR improved the resistance mechanism of pomegranate shrubs in saline clay soils, plus improving the growers’ net profit. MW generally reduced soil salinity, expressed as reduced pH, EC, Na+, and Ca2+ values. Full article
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