Physiological Responses of Tree Fruits to Environmental and Management Factors

Dear Colleagues,
Today, climatic changes and the sustainability of management practices are two major priorities for tree fruit scientists and growers. In the last few decades, plant molecular techniques have represented, and continue to represent, a very powerful tool. Together, plant molecular biology and biochemistry have boosted advances in basic tree physiology and fruit production. On the other hand, the tremendous advances in sensors (proximal and remote), as well as the application of information, communication, and artificial intelligence technologies to several smart solutions, have opened the doors to a wide array of precision operations for the sustainable management of tree fruits, promising a significant increase in production efficiency.

Nevertheless, trees respond to external stimuli by adjusting several physiological processes. All those physiological adjustments have small or large direct or indirect effects on tree growth and fruit production. Hence, to understand why trees grow and produce differently under various environmental and management regimes, we need to acquire a full comprehension of these complex mechanisms and processes and their modulation in response to external factors.

Today, our understanding of whole-tree functioning as the integration of multiple physiological processes is suffering from, on one side, a knowledge gap with respect to advanced information on basic molecular mechanisms, and on the other side, the potential application of smart technologies for precise orchard management. Such a gap can be filled by fostering studies on applied physiological processes related to tree growth and fruit production modifications mediated by environmental and management factors.

This Special Issue seeks to stimulate and collect these kind of studies keeping in mind that whole-tree fruit physiology must represent the basis for sustainable fruit production in a changing environment. All improvements in orchard and vineyard management systems have been, and will continue to be, achieved through advances in tree fruit physiology, from basic molecular processes to integrated whole-tree mechanisms affecting growth and fruit production.

Dr. Riccardo Lo Bianco
Guest Editor

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