Search Results (3,340)

Mediterranean agroecosystems are highly vulnerable to climate change, soil degradation, and declining soil organic carbon (SOC), threatening long-term agricultural sustainability. Carbon farming and regenerative agriculture have emerged as complementary approaches to restore soil functionality while contributing to climate change mitigation. This review synthesizes peer-reviewed literature published between 2015 and 2025 to assess the agronomic effectiveness of key regenerative and carbon farming practices in Mediterranean systems. A structured bibliographic analysis using Scopus and Web of Science evaluated practices influencing SOC dynamics, erosion control, water regulation, and associated ecosystem services. Evidence indicates that the introduction of cover crops in the crop rotation and reduced or no-tillage are the most consistently effective practices for enhancing SOC stocks, particularly when combined with organic amendments and diversified rotations. Crop diversification, intercropping, and agroforestry further support SOC accumulation and erosion control, especially in perennial systems such as vineyards and olive orchards. Organic inputs stimulate microbial-mediated carbon stabilization, while regenerative grazing contributes to nutrient cycling under context-specific conditions. Across practices, integrated management consistently delivers greater and more stable benefits than single interventions. Regenerative agriculture thus provides a systems-based foundation for carbon farming in Mediterranean agroecosystems. Long-term field experiments and improved monitoring frameworks remain essential to quantify carbon persistence and support policy implementation. Full article

Cloud-dependent irrigation platforms can support remote monitoring, but their use in precision fertigation is limited when local decisions must be made quickly and reliably. Network delay, temporary disconnection, and the use of single-point measurements may all reduce the ability of a system to respond to spatial variation in soil moisture and nutrient demand. In this work, an edge-controlled precision fertigation system was developed by combining multi-parameter soil sensing, spatial task scheduling, and a 6-DOF robotic manipulator. The ESP32 controller runs a preemptive FreeRTOS scheduler, allowing sensor acquisition, inverse-kinematics calculation, and pump actuation to be handled as separate tasks. A Kalman filter was used to smooth soil moisture measurements, and a hysteresis-based control strategy was adopted to reduce false triggering and repeated pump switching. To improve fertigation safety, a hardware–software interlock was added so that fertilizer delivery is always accompanied by water delivery. Hardware-in-the-Loop simulation and a 14-day field deployment were used to evaluate the system. The controller achieved an end-to-end latency of less than 38 ms and maintained operation during network interruptions through cached local parameters. After calibration, the robotic end-effector positioning error was reduced to ±2.4 mm. The hysteresis strategy lowered daily pump cycling by 71%. Based on prototype duty-cycle data and seasonal extrapolation, the projected seasonal water use and fertilizer demand were 44% and 38% lower, respectively, than those estimated for a uniform application. These values should be interpreted as model-based projections rather than direct season-long measurements. During 72 h of continuous operation, no Modbus faults were observed, and RTOS heap fragmentation remained stable. Overall, the results suggest that edge-based deterministic control can provide a practical route for precision fertigation where both spatial variability and intermittent connectivity must be considered. Full article

The diversity and complexity of symbiotic microbiota in fish may significantly influence the host’s physiological, metabolic and immunological functions. In order to understand the microbial assembly in Sichuan taimen (Hucho bleekeri), an endangered fish species in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the microbiota of the skin, oral cavity and feces of artificially reared individuals and the microbiota of the rearing water were characterized through metagenomic sequencing. The results demonstrated that Pseudomonadota were shared across the skin, oral cavity, feces and rearing water, suggesting that they may constitute a shared microbial group connecting the aquatic environment and host mucosal surfaces. Based on functional prediction analyses, these taxa were potentially associated with organic matter degradation, nutrient cycling, and microbial and immune homeostasis. Likewise, Actinomycetota and Bacillota were consistently detected across multiple mucosal tissues and were predicted to be associated with nutrient transformation, antimicrobial defense, and the maintenance of mucosal microbial stability. Fusobacteriota were detected solely in feces, suggesting a strong tissue-specific colonization capacity. The alpha diversity of the microbiota did not differ significantly among tissues, and the beta diversity revealed strong clustering of host-associated samples and clear separation from water samples. Functional annotation further revealed that the water microbiota exhibited broader yet more dispersed functional potential, whereas host-associated microbiota showed stronger functional specialization closely aligned with host physiological demands. Collectively, the findings are better presented as baseline information for future comparative and hypothesis-driven studies in Sichuan taimen. Full article

Seasonal snowpack and snowmelt are critical regulators of forest ecosystem functioning in temperate, boreal, montane, and alpine regions. Snowpack acts as a temporary water and energy reservoir, while snowmelt determines the seasonal availability of water and influences ecosystem processes during the growing season. Climate change is altering snowfall patterns, snow accumulation, and melt timing, with consequences for forest productivity, resilience, and disturbance dynamics. This review synthesizes current knowledge on snow–forest interactions and identifies major research trends, methodological approaches, and remaining knowledge gaps. The study combines a bibliometric analysis and a qualitative literature review based on publications indexed in the Scopus and Web of Science databases. A total of 695 publications were included in the bibliometric dataset and analyzed to assess temporal trends, geographical patterns, research themes, and the ecological consequences of changing snow dynamics in forests. Representative studies from this dataset were subsequently synthesized to evaluate the influence of snowpack and snowmelt on forest ecosystem functioning, resilience, and sustainability. The reviewed literature shows that snowpack and snowmelt strongly regulate forest water availability, soil thermal conditions, nutrient cycling, vegetation responses, and carbon dynamics. Changes in snow regimes, particularly reduced snow accumulation and earlier melt, can increase the risk of soil freezing, modify moisture conditions, intensify water stress, and affect ecosystem carbon balance. However, the magnitude and direction of these effects depend on forest type, species composition, climate, and landscape characteristics. Forest structure also plays an important role in controlling snow interception, accumulation, persistence, and melt processes. The bibliometric analysis indicates a rapid increase in research interest in snow–forest interactions over the last two decades, with major contributions from the United States, Canada, China, and Northern Europe. Environmental sciences, hydrology, and ecology were the dominant research areas. Despite substantial progress, uncertainties remain regarding long-term ecosystem responses, species-specific vulnerabilities, and the interactions between declining snow cover and other climate-driven disturbances. This review emphasizes that understanding snowpack and snowmelt dynamics is essential for predicting forest ecosystem responses to climate change and for improving sustainable forest management and watershed conservation strategies in snow-dependent regions. Full article

Continuous cropping obstacles (CCOs) severely disrupt the soil physical structure, nutrient cycling, and microbial community balance, leading to decreased crop productivity. However, the effects of soil amendment interventions on bacterial, fungal, and archaeal communities in foxtail millet (Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauvois.) systems are not well comprehended. Selected physical, chemical, biological soil amendment and crop rotations were evaluated for their effects on rhizosphere soil microbial diversity, composition, network characteristics, community assembly processes, niche breadth, and multi-functionality. High-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA and ITS regions demonstrated that earthworm castings significantly enhanced archaeal Chao1, Shannon diversity, and multi-functionality. Meanwhile, Bacillus mucilaginosus enhanced fungal diversity, and B. subtilis promoted bacterial network complexity. In continuous cropping soil alone, microbial communities exhibited low diversity and were predominantly governed by ecological drift. In contrast, soil amendment treatments shifted assembly toward deterministic processes, including homogeneous and heterogeneous selection. However, the analysis demonstrated greater complexity and niche width in bacterial communities than in fungal or archaeal communities, with keystone modules driven by Actinomycetota, Ascomycota, and Halobacteriota. Structural equation modeling indicated that soil physicochemical properties directly mediated rhizosphere soil microbial alpha diversity, which in turn positively influenced multi-functionality. Overall, organic amendments and microbial inoculants were associated with increases in microbial diversity, network stability, and functionality in this pot experiment, suggesting that such practices may help mitigate CCOs and sustainably improve foxtail millet productivity in dryland agricultural systems. Full article

Aiming at severe soil secondary salinization, poor water retention and insufficient salt tolerance of conventional acrylic-based modifiers in arid and semi-arid regions of China, a poly(ethylene glycol) maleate citrate (PEGMC) crosslinking monomer was synthesized through esterification, and a dual covalent–hydrogen crosslinked P(PEGMC/AA) hydrogel was fabricated via free radical copolymerization with acrylic acid (AA). The hydrogel was characterized by NMR, FTIR, SEM, TGA and elemental mapping, while its binding mechanism with saline–alkali ions was elucidated through DFT calculations and molecular dynamics simulations. Its amelioration performance was evaluated through swelling, soil water retention, desalination and pot germination experiments. The hydrogel exhibited outstanding water absorbency, salt resistance and dry–wet cycling stability, with swelling ratios of 712 g/g in deionized water and 285 g/g in 0.9% NaCl solution, and remained 200 g/g after four dry–wet cycles. It enhanced soil water retention remarkably (over 93% after 72 h). At 0.30% dosage, soil salt content declined from 7.1 g/kg to 1.3 g/kg with desalination efficiency exceeding 80%, owing to porous physical adsorption and chemical chelation toward Na⁺, Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺, with a binding energy of −136.936 kJ/mol. Pot tests revealed that crop germination rate rose from 19% (blank) to 75% under severe saline–alkali stress. Meanwhile, the hydrogel inhibited nutrient leaching and favored soil-water conservation. This work first incorporated PEGMC monomer into agricultural hydrogels to construct a stable dual crosslinked network, clarifying its synergistic mechanisms for salt fixation and water retention macroscopically and microscopically. It provides a promising functional material and theoretical basis for green, efficient in situ amelioration of dryland saline–alkali soil. Full article

Coastal water quality in the Bothnian Sea is shaped by interactions among local nutrient inputs, internal nutrient cycling, and basin-scale phosphorus enrichment, complicating the assessment and management of eutrophication. This study analyses long-term time series of nutrients (total phosphorus (TP), dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP), dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), and total nitrogen (TN)) and phytoplankton indicators (chlorophyll a and biomass) from contrasting Finnish coastal systems off Uusikaupunki and Rauma. Despite higher external phosphorus loading in Rauma, nutrient concentrations and phytoplankton biomass remain lower than in the semi-enclosed Uusikaupunki coastal zone. In contrast, Uusikaupunki exhibits higher chlorophyll a concentrations and lower TP:Chl a ratios, suggesting greater phosphorus bioavailability. At the offshore station SR5, TP and DIP increase below the surface layer, while surface concentrations show no significant trends, indicating phosphorus accumulation in deeper waters. Declining DIN:DIP ratios indicate a shift toward nitrogen limitation, under which primary production increasingly depends on phosphorus-supported nitrogen fixation. Chlorophyll a increases across the coastal gradient, including the outer archipelago, indicating a spatial expansion of eutrophication. Together, these findings are consistent with a system-level shift toward phosphorus-driven production. The results demonstrate a dual-control system in which basin-scale phosphorus enrichment determines long-term background conditions, while local nutrient loading and legacy effects regulate spatial variability in ecosystem response. More broadly, the findings highlight the importance of cross-scale interactions between regional nutrient enrichment and local ecosystem processes for understanding and managing eutrophication in inland and semi-enclosed marine systems. Full article

Perennially ice-covered lakes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, are shaped by permanent stratification, extreme oligotrophy, and salinity gradients, yet these features are vulnerable to climate-driven hydrologic change. Because phytoplankton and associated bacteria regulate carbon flow and nutrient cycling, understanding how algal–bacterial consortia respond to disturbance is key to predicting ecosystem change. We used enrichment cultures from Lakes Bonney and Fryxell to test responses to nutrient deprivation and salinity alteration, two perturbations relevant to climate-driven changes in hydrologic connectivity and expansion of open water moats. Autotrophic enrichments lacking added organic carbon were used to enrich algal–bacterial consortia dependent on photosynthetically derived substrates. Community responses were assessed with 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing of size-fractionated samples, allowing comparison of particle-associated and planktonic communities. Short-term nutrient limitation produced only limited shifts in community composition, indicating resistance to transient nutrient stress. However, bacterial communities were strongly structured by size fraction: particle-associated assemblages separated clearly from planktonic communities and were enriched in taxa linked to algal surfaces and polysaccharide-rich microhabitats, including Flavobacteriales, Sphingobacteriales, Rhizobiales, and Rhodobacterales. Salinity perturbation drove stronger restructuring of bacterial communities, with shallow Lake Bonney enrichments showing greater sensitivity than deeper communities. These findings suggest that algae-associated bacterial communities help structure Antarctic algal enrichment cultures and may influence microbial responses to climate-linked disturbance. Full article

Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is a promising thermochemical process for valorizing wet biomass and organic waste streams, generating hydrochar, gas, and a liquid phase commonly referred to as HTC process liquid or the aqueous phase. Depending on feedstock type and process severity, hydrochar typically accounts for approximately 40–70 wt.% of the initial dry feedstock, the liquid phase for about 30–60 wt.% in lignocellulosic and agricultural residues, and the gas phase for about 1–10 wt.%, while highly hydrated waste streams may generate even higher liquid-phase shares. Although hydrochar has traditionally been considered the main energy product, the liquid phase may retain approximately 20–65% of the initial feedstock carbon and around 15–25% of the initial energy content. However, its high chemical oxygen demand, elevated organic carbon content, variable biodegradability, toxicity, and inhibitory compounds often lead to its classification as a wastewater stream requiring treatment. The crucial novelty of this review is its system-oriented evaluation of HTC process liquid as an energy-bearing and system-integrating stream rather than merely as a wastewater by-product or as a substrate for isolated valorization routes. Therefore, this review evaluates the role of HTC process liquid in energy systems, focusing on its formation mechanisms, chemical composition, energy potential, valorization pathways, integration strategies, and environmental implications. The reviewed evidence shows that HTC process liquid contains a complex mixture of dissolved organic compounds, including volatile fatty acids, sugars, furans, phenols, ketones, aldehydes, amino acids, ammonia, and nitrogen-containing heterocycles. These compounds may support anaerobic digestion, dark fermentation, aqueous phase reforming, electrochemical conversion, nutrient recovery, and process-water recirculation. Among these routes, anaerobic digestion is currently the most mature, although its efficiency depends strongly on HTC severity, feedstock type, inhibitor formation, and microbial adaptation. Hydrogen-oriented and electrochemical pathways offer additional opportunities but still require further validation using real HTC liquids, standardized yield reporting, and long-term stability assessment. Overall, HTC process liquid should not be regarded solely as an environmental burden, but as a chemically complex and energy-rich stream that may improve the performance of integrated HTC-based bioenergy systems. Future research should focus on standardized liquid-phase energy metrics, long-term process integration, toxicity control, and experimentally validated techno-economic and life-cycle assessments. Full article

Sulfur-containing amino acids (SCAA) and their metabolites constitute an integrated metabolic network essential for central nervous system (CNS) function. In mammals, sulfur metabolism links one-carbon metabolism, the methionine cycle and the transsulfuration pathway, thereby connecting nutrient availability with redox regulation, methylation reactions, neurotransmitter synthesis and cellular adaptation to stress. Among these metabolites, methionine, cysteine, glutathione, taurine, homocysteine and hydrogen sulfide play key roles in neuronal physiology, mitochondrial homeostasis, synaptic plasticity and antioxidant defense. Alterations in SCAA metabolism have been increasingly associated with neurological and neurodevelopment disorders, which share common features such as oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, altered glutamatergic signaling, impaired methylation capacity and neuroinflammation. These pathological mechanisms are also observed following exposure to toxic metals, suggesting the existence of convergent pathways between environmental neurotoxicity and neurological diseases. Several studies showed that chronic exposure to arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead, and other toxic metals disrupts sulfur amino acid homeostasis by affecting methionine remethylation, transsulfuration activity, glutathione synthesis and reactive sulfur species production. Due to sulfur-containing metabolites possessing antioxidant and metal-binding properties, these pathways are also involved in adaptive detoxification response. However, sustained disruption of sulfur metabolism may compromise neuronal resilience and increase vulnerability to neurological dysfunction. This narrative review integrates current evidence on the physiological roles of SCAA in the CNS, and examines how toxic metals disrupt sulfur metabolic pathways. By combining findings from experimental studies, human data and exploratory transcriptomic analyses, we propose that disruption of SCAA homeostasis represents a mechanistic link between environmental metal exposure and increased vulnerability to neurological disease. Full article

Canker is a major fungal disease that causes substantial yield losses in pitaya (Selenicereus monacanthus (Lemaire) D.R.Hunt, syn. Hylocereus polyrhizus (F.A.C. Weber) Britton and Rose; red-fleshed pitaya). However, how fruit ripening and pathogenesis interactively shape fungal communities in fruit peels remains unclear. Here, we investigated the diversity, assembly mechanisms, co-occurrence networks, and functional guilds of fungal communities in healthy and diseased fruit peels at immature (green) and mature (red) stages of ‘Jindu No. 1’ pitaya using ITS1 amplicon sequencing. Our results revealed that fruit maturity exerted stronger effects on fungal community structure than disease status, with ripening reducing diversity and increasing dominance. Notably, disease-induced stage-dependent responses: immature communities shifted from stochastic to deterministic assembly under pathogen selection, whereas mature communities maintained stochastic processes despite infection. Co-occurrence network analysis revealed that healthy mature peels formed highly complex, cooperative networks with dense positive interactions, while healthy immature peels exhibited fragmented, modular structures vulnerable to invasion. Diseased immature peels displayed intermediate network topology, and diseased mature peels showed disrupted connectivity. Functionally, healthy fruits maintained balanced pathotroph-saprotroph-symbiotroph guilds, whereas diseased fruits exhibited higher relative abundance of pathotrophs and saprotrophs, reflecting a shift from symbiotic nutrient cycling toward necrotrophic pathogenicity and decomposition. These findings challenge the single-pathogen paradigm by revealing canker as an ecological process involving community-wide restructuring. They provide a theoretical basis for stage-specific microbiome-targeted disease management in tropical fruits, emphasizing the preservation of stochastic assembly and cooperative network structures to enhance disease resistance. Full article

Crop rotation is a key practice for improving soil health, reducing chemical inputs, and ensuring sustainable agricultural productivity. This review synthesizes research from major agricultural regions worldwide, including North America, Europe, South America, South Asia, and Africa, with additional case studies from China to illustrate regional applications. This study presents a streamlined framework that integrates climate adaptability, crop combinations, yield-enhancing mechanisms, technological support, and regional optimization. By analyzing plant–soil–microbe interactions—including improvements in soil physical structure, nutrient cycling, microbial processes, and suppression of pests and diseases—we elucidate how rotation systems enhance the yield of subsequent crops. Precision agriculture technologies, such as variable-rate fertilization and remote sensing, have been shown to improve resource use efficiency and reduce labor input in certain cropping systems. Diversified crop rotations can substantially offset direct greenhouse gas emissions through enhanced soil carbon sequestration. The design of region-specific recommended rotation patterns should follow the principles of resource matching, stable yield and efficiency enhancement, and sustainability. This framework provides a practical reference for designing region-specific rotation systems and advancing sustainable agricultural development. Full article

Agroecosystems must maintain high productivity over time and contribute to restoring the biodiversity and functionality of soils while agroecosystems yield the food we eat; however, the diversity related to food and agriculture has been shrinking. With this systematic review, the narrative and evidence map synthesized existing evidence about how cereal-legume rotations (as a form of diversifying crop diversity) could improve the diversity and function of the plant and functional aspects of biodiversity while restoring the soil health and agroecosystem resilience. A PRISMA 2020 report has been created alongside this work. This evidence will be used to understand improvements in soil physical and biological traits, nutrient cycles, and biologically fixed N, regulated pests/diseases/weeds, productivity and yield stability, environmental efficiency, and outcomes. In addition, several pieces of evidence were included and explained concerning the N cycle in cereal-legume rotations. When used compared to monoculture cereal systems, cereal-legume rotations lead to improved soil structure, activity, and nutritional status (N fixing) and may decrease pests and disease; these conditions often promote a better harvest or lead to higher and/or more stable productivity. Crop residue-based SOC increases are generally moderate in duration and degree. The increase in microbial biomass occurred more quickly over the years. For the environment, cereal-legume rotations generally achieve a lower total environmental efficiency due to lower N fertilizer inputs (N fixing), which means a lower C footprint per ton of production of crops, yet this strategy can also cause some environmental consequences, such as increasing N₂O emissions (due to over N fixing), which cause global warming and nitrate leaching when N is fixed in excess, not coupled with crop requirements, creating pollution. The rotation is context-dependent, so each site-specific system needs to be analyzed to improve trade-offs to yield, productivity, and environmental conservation. Full article

(1) Background: Soil nutrient availability in vineyards is shaped by physicochemical and biological processes. However, how baseline edaphic differences are related to soil microbial functional genes and plant elemental composition under biodynamic management remains unclear; (2) Methods: Two biodynamically managed Pinot Noir (Vitis vinifera L.) vineyard sites in Tasmania, hereafter referred to as site 1 (S1) and site 2 (S2), were compared at fruit set, veraison, and ripening. Soil physicochemical properties were measured, soil, leaf, and grape berry elemental compositions were assessed by X-ray fluorescence, and soil microbial taxonomic marker genes and soil microbial functional genes were quantified by qPCR. Because the dataset comprised only six site-by-stage composite samples without independent field-level biological replication, multivariate analyses and partial least squares path modeling were used as exploratory tools; (3) Results: The two sites showed distinct baseline soil physicochemical properties. Soil microbial functional genes varied across sites and phenological stages, with several nitrogen (N)-cycling genes showing higher values at S1 and amoA increasing toward ripening at both sites. AMG, defined here as an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF)-related marker, also increased toward ripening and was interpreted separately from the N-cycling genes. Soil elements mainly reflected site-related differences, whereas leaf and berry elements showed clearer variation across phenological stages. The exploratory path model, based on this limited composite dataset, summarized sequential associations among soil physicochemical properties, microbial functional genes, leaf elements, and berry elements, as well as a direct association between soil physicochemical properties and berry elemental composition; (4) Conclusions: These findings describe exploratory soil–microbe–plant association patterns under biodynamic management and should not be interpreted as statistically inferential or causal evidence. Full article

Elucidating the response mechanisms of C-, N-, and P-cycling enzyme activities within soil aggregates to tea plantation age can provide a theoretical foundation for improving soil fertility, safeguarding soil health, and promoting the sustainable use of soil resources in tea plantations. In the present study, soil samples were collected from the 0–20 cm layer of tea plantations with different ages (3, 9, 16, and 24 years). Then, soil samples were separated into >2, 2–1, 1–0.25, and <0.25 mm aggregate size fractions using an optimal moisture sieving method, and the activities of β-glucosidase, invertase, urease, protease, and acid phosphatase were measured in each fraction. Across all tea plantation ages, the aggregate composition was dominated by the >2 mm fraction, whose content was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than that of other size fractions, averaging 54.47%. With increasing plantation age, the content of >2 mm aggregates first increased and then decreased, reaching a relatively high level at 16 years. The activities of β-glucosidase, invertase, urease, and protease in the tea plantation soils were predominantly distributed in the >2 mm aggregates, with average activities of 261.34, 585.31, 52.24, and 84.34 mg kg⁻¹ h⁻¹, respectively; in contrast, acid phosphatase activity was less affected by aggregate size. As plantation age increased, the activities of β-glucosidase, invertase, urease, and protease initially increased and then decreased, reaching relatively high levels at 16 years (322.98, 696.66, 67.00, and 100.98 mg kg⁻¹ h⁻¹, respectively), whereas acid phosphatase activity progressively increased with age. During the aggregate fractionation process, all enzyme activities were lost to varying degrees, with average recovery rates of 80.45% (β-glucosidase), 83.13% (invertase), 80.78% (urease), 82.16% (protease), and 81.66% (acid phosphatase). As the primary carriers of soil enzymes, the formation and stabilization of >2 mm aggregates are of great importance for promoting soil organic C and nutrient cycling. In tea plantation management, therefore, attention should be directed to the breakdown and disruption of >2 mm aggregates after 16 years of cultivation to maintain soil quality and sustain soil organic C and nutrient use efficiency. Full article