Papers by Tommaso Maggiore
GCB Bioenergy, 2014
Agricultural anaerobic digestion facilities are increasing in many EU member States and biomass s... more Agricultural anaerobic digestion facilities are increasing in many EU member States and biomass supply is sometimes an issue. Dedicated energy crops (DEC) (mainly Maize, Triticale and Sorghum) are often used to integrate other substrates, such as agricultural residues, manure and organic waste. However, DEC production includes onerous agricultural operations (soil preparation, harvest, transport and storage) and may result in high unit costs (UC) of electric energy (EE, € kWhe−1), compared to other renewable sources. In this work, seven different types of DEC (4 different combinations of crop successions) were cultivated in 30 different parcels, distributed along the Po Valley (northern Italy), using different varieties of seeds for each crop type. All agricultural operations were accounted for their costs (988–3346 € ha−1). Biomass production was measured and reported as average of different parcels for each type of crop (31.2–187 Mg ha−1). Biomass dry matter content and biogas pot...
Riassunto Il prato da vicenda di erba medica svolge un ruolo di rilievo nei sistemi colturali a o... more Riassunto Il prato da vicenda di erba medica svolge un ruolo di rilievo nei sistemi colturali a orientamento zootecnico della Valpadana e le peculiari condizioni pedoclimatiche di tale area giustificano l'importanza di disporre di un modello di produttività calibrato per le cultivar specifiche. Lo scopo di questo lavoro è stata la calibrazione e la messa a punto del modello ALFALFA scelto in virtù dell'approccio completo e ben strutturato al comportamento morfologico e fisiologico dell'erba medica. La calibrazione è stata condotta con riferimento all'ecotipo Vogherese e ad alcune CV americane (Apollo, Magnum e Saranac) in coltura nella provincia di Pavia (Lombardia -Italia Nord Occidentale) nel triennio 1991-93. I risultati mostrano una buona rispondenza fra la biomassa prodotta dalla cv Vogherese nei diversi tagli e quella simulata. Tale performance appare promettente per un impiego operativo del modello per attività di assistenza tecnica nell'area padana. Abstr...
Mini-Lysimeters (ML) installed in a farm of Milano University provide a direct measurement of eva... more Mini-Lysimeters (ML) installed in a farm of Milano University provide a direct measurement of evapotranspiration from reference crop. An indirect estimation of evapotranspiration has been carried out by means of micrometeorological algo- rithm of Penman -Monteith. Data produced by the ML has been compared with Penman-Monteith equation. Advantages and limits of the ML approach were evidenced. Riassunto I Mini-Lisimetri (ML) installati presso un'azienda agricola dell'Università degli Studi di Milano forniscono la misura di- retta dell'evapotraspirazione da coltura di riferimento. Una stima indiretta di evapotraspirazione è stata condotta con l'utilizzo dell'equazione di Penman-Monteith. I dati prodotti dai ML sono stati messi a confronto con l'equazione di Pen- man-Monteith. Vantaggi e svantaggi dei ML sono infine stati messi in evidenza. Parole chiave: Mini-Lisimetri , evapotraspirazione, micrometeorologia
I lisimetri sono nati originariamente per la conduzione di studi sul bilancio idrico delle coltur... more I lisimetri sono nati originariamente per la conduzione di studi sul bilancio idrico delle colture legati sia alla calibrazione e validazione delle equazioni di stima dell'ET0 sia alla determinazione dei coefficienti colturali (kc) necessari per trasformare i valori di ET0 in valori di ETM. In termini generali un lisimetro è un blocco di terreno inserito in un apposito contenitore e
Postharvest Biology and Technology, 2007
The quality of leafy vegetables has to be guaranteed for consumers for the whole postharvest peri... more The quality of leafy vegetables has to be guaranteed for consumers for the whole postharvest period, usually limited to 5-7 days. The quality of vegetables during storage is difficult to determine. The aim of this work was to evaluate the quality status of leafy vegetables by means of chlorophyll a fluorescence measurements. Experiments were performed on Valeriana lettuce stored at 4 or 10 • C for 15 days. The quality of the lettuce was evaluated by measuring anthocyanins, chlorophyll, carotenoids, phenols and chlorophyll a fluorescence. JIP analysis was performed at the intermediate points of the fluorescence induction curve. Results show that the higher storage temperature affected the lettuce leaf quality. Significant chlorophyll reduction was observed after only 5 days of storage in leaves stored at 10 • C. Total carotenoids significantly decreased after 8 days at both storage temperatures. Anthocyanins and total phenols did not change statistically during the entire experimental period. Fv/Fm and Fm measurements were able to be used to show changes that took place during the storage period, but were not to discriminate between the two storage temperatures. Among the calculated JIP indices, only PI, DIo/CS, ABS/DIo, ETo/DIo and RC/CSm were able to highlight differences during storage and between the two storage temperatures, and may be used as markers to evaluate the status of leaf during leafy vegetable storage. The highest value of R 2 was found for ETo/DIo versus storage time.
Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 2008
BACKGROUND: The quality of melon fruit depends upon many factors that can be affected by growing ... more BACKGROUND: The quality of melon fruit depends upon many factors that can be affected by growing conditions and post-harvest management. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of nitrogen fertilisation levels on the fruit quality at harvest time and during storage. Experiments were performed in an open field using melon plants (Cucumis melo L. Var. Reticulatus cv. Prodigio). The nitrogen (N) was applied through fertigation using four fertilisation levels: 0, 55, 110 and 165 kg ha −1 . After harvest the fruits were stored at 10 • C for 8 days. At harvest time the yield, flesh firmness, skin and pulp colours, content of carotenoids, total phenols, ascorbic acid (AsA) and ethylene production were measured on fruits differently fertilised.
International Journal of Food Science & Technology, 2009
Consumers are oriented towards fresh-cut vegetables that provide phytonutrients useful for preven... more Consumers are oriented towards fresh-cut vegetables that provide phytonutrients useful for preventing stress-related diseases. The aim of this work was to evaluate the cut operations on the quality changes of lamb's lettuce (Valerianella olitoria L.) cv. Trofy during storage at 4°C for 8 days. Results showed that chlorophyll and carotenoids reduction was observed after 8 days of storage. In both treatments, total carotenoids after 8 days decreased from 20 to 16 mg g )1 FW. Free and total phenols increased with storage in both treatments. Total phenols were 23% higher in control (32 lmol g )1 FW) compared to cut leaves (25 lmol g )1 FW) after 8 days of storage. Anthocyanins increased after 8 days and reached 30 mg 100 g )1 FW without significant difference between treatments. Ascorbic acid (AsA) and dehydroascorbic (DHA) acid increased in cut leaves compared to control. After 1 day AsA concentration was 3 300 nmol g )1 FW in cut leaves, while in control leaves was 1 500 nmol g )1 FW. Analogously AsA + DHA was higher in cut leaves, 4 100 nmol g )1 FW, while in control leaves the mean was 3 000 nmol g )1 FW. After 5 days of storage the values of AsA returned to initial values, while AsA + DHA were lower.
European Journal of Agronomy, 1998
) of the high-yielding cultivars 'Gemini' of wheat and 'Jaidor' of barley were tested with N rate... more ) of the high-yielding cultivars 'Gemini' of wheat and 'Jaidor' of barley were tested with N rates of 0, 140 and 210 kg ha−1 and 0, 80 and 140 kg ha−1, respectively. The different grain yield response was linked to their difference in nitrogen uptake and utilization efficiency. The highest yield in barley was recorded with 80 kg N ha−1 and in wheat with 210 kg N ha−1. Nitrogen application affected the accumulation of biomass up to heading in wheat and barley. While N uptake during grain filling did not show any correlation to N applied in barley, it was markedly correlated in wheat. At N 0 and N 140 N applied, barley exhibited a 32 and 8% higher N UtE than wheat. N agronomic efficiency, a parameter representing the ability of the plant to increase yield in response to N applied, was similar in barley and wheat (8.7 and 9.2 kg kg−1 of N applied, respectively), suggesting that both species respond equally to nitrogen fertilization. Nevertheless, due to its lower N UtE , wheat requires high N fertilization to optimize yields; by contrast, in barley the lower N rate needed to achieve highest yields enables this crop to perform better in low-input conditions. As a results, the reduced N requirements for barley highest yield associated with a better R F value (apparent N fertilizer recovery of 63% in barley and 49% in wheat at N 140 ) makes barley crop a better choice to reduce ground-water pollution due to nitrate leaching in winter and early spring.
European Journal of Agronomy, 2000
... However, as the statistically independent PC scores are rarely spatially orthogonal, we prefe... more ... However, as the statistically independent PC scores are rarely spatially orthogonal, we preferred to incorporate PC technique in geostatistics using factorial kriging (Vargas and Vargas).Multivariate geostatistical analysis was performed using only six soil properties (SAND, SILT ...
Environmental Modelling & Software, 2006
Dynamic simulation models are frequently used for assessing agronomic and environmental effects o... more Dynamic simulation models are frequently used for assessing agronomic and environmental effects of different management practices, under various pedo-climatic conditions. CropSyst is a suitable cropping systems simulation model for such applications. However, available CropSyst crop parameters for winter wheat, one of the most important cereals in the world, are limited. In this work we show that it is possible to parameterize separate sub-model components by using existing experimental data and literature.
Il pianeta acqua nel continente agricoltura, 2005
European Journal of Agronomy, 2003
... results was much lower than the spatial variability of model inputs: this smoothing effect wa... more ... results was much lower than the spatial variability of model inputs: this smoothing effect was due ... techniques; Irrigation planning; Cropping systems simulation models; Regional scale modelapplication; ; Calculate first ... (2000) obtained similar findings for solar radiation estimation ...
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Papers by Tommaso Maggiore