Papers by Monia Charfeddine
European Journal of Agronomy, 2016
European Journal of Agronomy, 2015
C. Kollas et al. / Europ. J. Agronomy 70 (2015) 98-111 99 The low degree of superiority of contin... more C. Kollas et al. / Europ. J. Agronomy 70 (2015) 98-111 99 The low degree of superiority of continuous simulations over single year simulation was caused by (a) insufficiently parameterised crops, which affect the performance of the following crop, and (b) the lack of growth-limiting water and/or nitrogen in the crop rotations under investigation. In order to achieve a sound representation of crop rotations, further research is required to synthesise existing knowledge of the physiology of intermediate crops and of carry-over effects from the preceding to the following crop, and to implement/improve the modelling of processes that condition these effects.
Negli ultimi anni, le previsioni riguardanti il cambiamento climatico segnalano per l'Europa ... more Negli ultimi anni, le previsioni riguardanti il cambiamento climatico segnalano per l'Europa ed in particolare per l'area Mediterranea, una maggiore frequenza di eventi estremi con importanti ripercussioni sulla risorsa idrica, un aumento della temperatura con variazioni del ciclo vegetativo e conseguentemente sulla capacità produttiva delle colture. Su queste basi, il modello di simulazione colturale DSSAT (Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer) è stato applicato per analizzare gli impatti degli scenari climatici futuri (forniti dal centro europeo JRC, generati mediante un downscaling di tipo statistico partendo da distribuzioni note derivanti da dati misurati) sulla resa e sulla fenologia del frumento duro (Triticum durum Desf.) e del pomodoro (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), colture tipicamente mediterranee, al fine di proporre possibili strategie di adattamento, quali un anticipo o un ritardo dell'epoca di semina/trapianto. I risultati di queste simulaz...
Italian Journal of Agrometeorology
Negli ultimi anni, le previsioni riguardanti il cambiamento climatico segnalano per l'Europa ed i... more Negli ultimi anni, le previsioni riguardanti il cambiamento climatico segnalano per l'Europa ed in particolare per l'area Mediterranea, una maggiore frequenza di eventi estremi con importanti ripercussioni sulla risorsa idrica, un aumento della temperatura con variazioni del ciclo vegetativo e conseguentemente sulla capacità produttiva delle colture. Su queste basi, il modello di simulazione colturale DSSAT (Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer) è stato applicato per analizzare gli impatti degli scenari climatici futuri (forniti dal centro europeo JRC, generati mediante un downscaling di tipo statistico partendo da distribuzioni note derivanti da dati misurati) sulla resa e sulla fenologia del frumento duro (Triticum durum Desf.) e del pomodoro (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), colture tipicamente mediterranee, al fine di proporre possibili strategie di adattamento, quali un anticipo o un ritardo dell'epoca di semina/trapianto. I risultati di queste simulazioni hanno dimostrato, per entrambe le colture, il significativo effetto dell'incremento termico sulla lunghezza del ciclo colturale e di importanti parametri dell'accrescimento e della produzione. Risulta, infine, che su una coltura a ciclo primaverile-estivo come il pomodoro la variazione dell'epoca di trapianto non sembrerebbe sufficiente a compensare le modificazioni climatiche, a differenza di quanto osservato per una coltura a ciclo invernale come il frumento duro.
Italian Journal of Agronomy, 2012
Many climate change studies have been carried out in different parts of the world to assess clima... more Many climate change studies have been carried out in different parts of the world to assess climate change vulnerability and adaptation capacity of agricultural crops for certain environments characterized from climatic, pedological and agronomical point of view.
Italian Journal of Agronomy, 2012
Cropping systems are affected by climate change because of the strong relationship between crop d... more Cropping systems are affected by climate change because of the strong relationship between crop development, growth, yield, CO2 atmospheric concentration and climate conditions. The increasing temperatures and the reduction of available water resources may result in negative impacts on the agricultural activity in Mediterranean environments than other areas. In this study the CERES-Wheat and CROPGRO-Tomato models were used to assess the effects of climate change on winter wheat (Triticum durum L.) and processing tomato (Lycopersicon aesculentum Mill.) in one of most productive areas of Italy, located in the northern part of the Puglia region. In particular we have compared three different General Circulation Models (HadCM3, CCSM3, ECHAM5) subjected to a statistical downscaling under two future IPCC scenarios (B1 and A2). The analysis was carried out at regional scale repeating the simulations for seven homogeneous area characterizing the spatial variability of the region. In the second part of the study, considering only HadCM3 data set, climate change impact on long-term sequences of the two crops combined in three crop rotations, were evaluated in terms of yield performances and soil fertility as indicated by the soil organic content of carbon and nitrogen. The comparison between GCMs showed no significant differences for winter durum wheat yield, while noticeable dif-ferences were found for yield and irrigation requirements of tomato. Under future scenarios, the production levels were reduced for tomato, whereas positive yield effects were observed for winter durum wheat. For winter durum wheat the simulation indicated that two-and three-year rotations, including one year of tomato cultivation, improved the cereal yield and this positive effect maintained its validity also in future scenarios. For both crops higher requirements of water and nitrogen were predicted under future scenarios. This result coupled with the decrease of yield caused negative reduction of water use efficiency and nitrogen use efficiency for tomato cultivation.
Regional Environmental Change, 2012
Agricultural crops are affected by climate change due to the relationship between crop developmen... more Agricultural crops are affected by climate change due to the relationship between crop development, growth, yield, CO 2 atmospheric concentration and climate conditions. In particular, the further reduction in existing limited water resources combined with an increase in temperature may result in higher impacts on agricultural crops in the Mediterranean area than in other regions. In this study, the cropping system models CERES-Wheat and CROPGRO-Tomato of the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) were used to analyse the response of winter durum wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) crops to climate change, irrigation and nitrogen fertilizer managements in one of most productive areas of Italy (i.e. Capitanata, Puglia). For this analysis, three climatic datasets were used: (1) a single dataset (50 km 9 50 km) provided by the JRC European centre for the period 1975-2005; two datasets from HadCM3 for the IPCC A2 GHG scenario for time slices with ?2°C (centred over 2030-2060) and ?5°C (centred over 2070-2099), respectively. All three datasets were used to generate synthetic climate series using a weather simulator (model LARS-WG). Adaptation strategies, such as irrigation and N fertilizer managements, have been investigated to either avoid or at least reduce the negative impacts induced by climate change impacts for both crops. Warmer temperatures were primarily shown to accelerate wheat and tomato phenology, thereby resulting in decreased total dry matter accumulation for both tomato and wheat under the ?5°C future climate scenario. Under the ?2°C scenario, dry matter accumulation and resulting yield were also reduced for tomato, whereas no negative yield effects were observed for winter durum wheat. In general, limiting the global mean temperature change of 2°C, the application of adaptation strategies (irrigation and nitrogen fertilization) showed a positive effect in minimizing the negative impacts of climate change on productivity of tomato cultivated in southern Italy.
ABSTRACT The climatic change induced by the global warming is expected to modify the agricultural... more ABSTRACT The climatic change induced by the global warming is expected to modify the agricultural activity and consequently the other social and economical sectors. In this context, an efficient management of the water resources is considered very important for Italy and in particular for Southern areas characterized by a typical Mediterranean climate in order to improve the economical and environmental sustainability of the agricultural activity. Climate warming could have a substantial impact on some agronomical practices as the choice of the crops to be included in the rotations, the sowing time and the irrigation scheduling. For a particular zone, the impact of climatic change on agricultural activity will depend also on the continuum "soil-plant-climate" and this continuum has to be included in the analysis for forecasting purposes. The Project CLIMESCO is structured in four workpackages (WP): (1) Identification of homogeneous areas, (2) Climatic change, (3) Optimization of water resources and (4) Scenarios analysis. In this study we applied a statistical downscaling method, Canonical Correlation Analysis after Principal Component Analysis filtering, to two sub-regions of agricultural interest in Sicily and Apulia (respectively, Delia basin and Capitanata). We adopt, as large scale predictors, the sea level pressure from the the EMULATE project dataset and the 1000 hPa temperature obtained from the NCEP reanalyses, while the predictands are monthly time series of maximum and minimum temperature and precipitation. As the crop growth models need daily datasets, a stochastic weather generator (the LARS-WG model) has been applied for this purpose. LARS-WG needs a preliminary calibration with daily time series of meteorological fields, that are available in the framework of CLIMESCO project. Then, the statistical relationships have been applied to two climate change scenarios (SRES A2 and B2), provided by three different GCM's: the Hadley Centre Coupled Model version 3 (HadCM3), the Max Planck Institute's ECHAM 5 and the NCAR's Community Climate System Model version 3 (CCSM3). The objective of this paper is to evaluate the impact of climate change on productivity of durum wheat and tomato cultivated in the Northern part of Puglia region (Southern Italy) in a sensitivity evaluation in order to appreciate the differences due to three GCM under two scenarios of IPCC. The growth processes and soil water balance were simulated using DSSAT model. The development processes (rate of emergence, leaf appearance, and progress toward flowering and maturity) and growth processes (photosynthesis, leaf expansion, fruit and seed growth, N mobilization, etc.) depend on the base and optimum temperatures. The model calculates biomass accumulation as the product of radiation use efficiency and photosynthetically active intercepted radiation. The soil water model is calculated operates on the basis of a ‘‘tipping bucket'' approach and includes rainfall, infiltration and runoff, drainage, soil evaporation, plant transpiration and root absorption.
Purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.) is a common weed that grows all over the world and is one of the... more Purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.) is a common weed that grows all over the world and is one of the most widespread weed species in summer crops. However, it has great potential to become a new crop since its identification as one of the best plant sources of-3 fatty acid,-linolenic acid, as well as some antioxidants ((-tocopherol,-carotene, ascorbic acid, and glutathione). Several other features distinguish this species: high content of crude protein, water-soluble polysaccharides useful as gums, and good tolerance to salinity. This review summarizes purslane's origin, botanical, and physiological features while its nutritional and medical properties are reported in reference to several studies carried out on its chemical properties. Finally, its cultivation potential is discussed and future uses are proposed for this species, mainly as a component in ready-to-use vegetables (especially in mixed packaging) but also for other cultivation purposes.
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Papers by Monia Charfeddine