Papers by pasquale losciale
European Journal of Horticultural Science, 2020
Stratification of spatial data into management classes is a common way of interpreting and managi... more Stratification of spatial data into management classes is a common way of interpreting and managing spatial agricultural data. High-resolution environmental and crop production information was collected within a 2.2-ha apple orchard (Malus domestica cv. Gala) near Sydney, NSW, Australia. Classifying the block into management units using the environmental data did not help to interpret the observed apple spatial variation in apple production. A backwards modelling approach was subsequently undertaken, effectively analyzing whether the crop production explains environmental variation. The backwards management unit model identified a different spatial patterning that revealed both an environmental and managerial effect on fruit production in different sections of the orchards. The unknown management effect had masked any spatial environmental-crop interactions in the initial (forward) management unit analysis. The combined forward and backward modeling approach significantly assisted the interpretation of the spatial variation in production in the orchard and identified a previously unknown management effect. When using management units to assess spatial relationships, the inclusion of a backwards modeling approach may help industry and growers to better understand and interpret spatial relationships and facilitate orchard management.
Acta Horticulturae, 2017
Europe is one of the leading countries for almond consumption, however, its record for production... more Europe is one of the leading countries for almond consumption, however, its record for production was lost several decades ago. Although the USA is nowadays the first producing country, the last drought seasons occurred in California threatened the maintenance of almond production. Several mitigation and adaptation activities should be undertaken in order to cope with this issue. The present study reports the results of 7 years of observations performed on 86 Italian (most of all from Apulia), 44 foreign almond cultivars and 71 hybrids having local or foreign cultivars as parental. The trial was carried out on trees grafted on seedling and managed according to the principles of Dry Farming Practices (DFP), without any irrigation supply. Productivity (average and cumulative production of almonds with and without shell per tree) and commodities-related (nut and kernel weights, percentage of tween and aborted kernels) variables were measured and data were subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA). PCA revealed that two factors explained more than 60% of variance; Factor 1 (~50% of variance) and Factor 3 (11% of variance) were defined by the productivity and commodities-related variables, respectively. Under DFP condition local cultivars and the deriving hybrids, appeared more performing for the productivity features than the foreign ones, resulting less prone to be cultivated in water limiting conditions. A clear separation between local and foreign cultivars for Factor 3 was not recorded. This poly-annual study highlights the important role of biodiversity in the climate change adaptation strategies, in order to reach an environmental and economic sustainability of agriculture.
Acta Horticulturae, 2016
Previous studies show how different fruit species exhibit a wide range in their epidermal conduct... more Previous studies show how different fruit species exhibit a wide range in their epidermal conductance and thus in their capacity of losing water by transpiration. This implies different potentials in decreasing daily their turgor pressure and in increasing their stem-to-fruit water potential gradient. As phloem and xylem flows to the fruit are driven by water potential gradients in the vascular path, fruit dehydration by transpiration may have an impact in these flows and thus in fruit growth. Besides, as phloem unloading may occur by active or passive mechanisms depending, among other factors, on the fruit capacity to maintain phloem-to-fruit hydrostatic pressure gradients, fruit capacity to transpire may be related to phloem unloading behaviour as well as the tendency to develop xylem dysfunctions during the season or to be subjected to xylem backflows. This work compares data from peach, apple, pear, kiwifruit and grape at different times during the season and show how fruit with similar features can share a similar growth strategy.
XXVIII International Horticultural Congress on Science and Horticulture for People (IHC2010): International Symposium on the Challenge for a Sustainable Production, Protection and Consumption of Mediterranean Fruits and Nuts, 2012
ABSTRACT Export Date: 20 February 2014, Source: Scopus
XXVIII International Horticultural Congress on Science and Horticulture for People (IHC2010): International Symposium on Plant Physiology from Cell to Fruit Production System, 2012
Very little has been published to date on seasonal spatial variability of production in fruit cro... more Very little has been published to date on seasonal spatial variability of production in fruit crops, and most papers refer to data collected post harvest. This work analysed field information recorded within-season (fruit growth rate) and at harvest (crop load, fruit size, fruit ripening) in 2008 in two commercial apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) orchards in the Ferrara province, Italy. In high-quality apple production systems, manual refinement of chemical thinning is a must, but growers lack a methodology for assessing the efficacy of thinning treatments and to assist further management decisions, such as irrigation levels, for example. The within-season data were used to provide assistance in management decisions taken by growers and/or consultants throughout the season. The goal was to assist in improving the efficacy of management to ensure high production while maintaining as high yields as possible. The relationships between the within-season and harvest measurements were analyzed using both traditional and spatial statistical techniques. Maps of crop production/ quality parameters and fruit growth were generated by punctual kriging with a global variogram on a common grid. Within-season monitoring provided more robust estimations of the fruit load per tree than traditional methods, which underestimated fruit load, leading to more appropriate thinning. Monitoring fruit growth rates also provided good estimations of fruit size distribution at harvest and permitted better satisfaction of the target market. Useful information could be obtained by interpretation at the block (orchard) scale, however, a spatial analysis at a sub-block level appeared to offer the opportunity for differential management. The work presented is intended as a proof of concept of this methodology, the satisfactory results from which signal that it may be not far from large-scale adoption.
VI International Symposium on Light in Horticulture, 2011
... Leaf anatomical and morphological aspects are currently being assessed. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We t... more ... Leaf anatomical and morphological aspects are currently being assessed. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank the assistance of Luigi Manfrini, Brunella Morandi, Emanuele Pierpaoli, Page 3. 219 Marco Zibordi and Osvaldo Faccini in conducting the experiments. ...
Scientia Horticulturae, 2011
This study investigates the effects of shading on the biophysical mechanisms of apple (Malus Dome... more This study investigates the effects of shading on the biophysical mechanisms of apple (Malus Domestica Bork.) fruit growth by assessing how vascular and transpiration flows to/from the fruit are affected by shading. At 30 days after full bloom, a 90% neutral shading net was applied to four trees of the cv. Gala, for seven days, while four more trees, chemically thinned, were used as control. Fruit vascular and transpiration flows were assessed from two days before, to the end of shading. The daily patterns of fruit relative growth rate (RGR) and of phloem, xylem and transpiration flows were determined by continuous monitoring of fruit diameter by automatic fruit gauges. Before shading application, no differences between the two groups of trees selected were found for any of the parameters measured. Despite shading induced an immediate drop in canopy photosynthesis, both fruit daily RGR and phloem flow decreased gradually, until reaching 20% of the before treatment values after 7 days of shading. Differences in RGR and phloem flow appeared especially during the afternoon and night, i.e. post carbon assimilation by the tree, and fruit growth rates were higher in control trees. In the same period no, or very small differences were found between treatments for transpiration rates, while xylem flow was affected later than phloem and only at specific times during the day. These results suggest that the decrease in fruit growth rate under shading should be attributed to the reduction of canopy photosynthesis, rather than to a direct effect of shading on fruit sink strength.
Physiologia Plantarum, 2007
Assaying the number of functional PSII complexes by the oxygen yield from leaf tissue per saturat... more Assaying the number of functional PSII complexes by the oxygen yield from leaf tissue per saturating, single-turnover flash, assuming that each functional PSII evolves one oxygen molecule after four flashes, is one of the most direct methods but time-consuming. The ratio of variable to maximum Chl fluorescence yield (F v /F m) in leaves can be correlated with the oxygen yield per flash during a progressive loss of PSII activity associated with highlight stress and is rapid and non-intrusive, but suffers from being representative of chloroplasts near the measured leaf surface; consequently, the exact correlation depends on the internal leaf structure and on which leaf surface is being measured. Our results show that the average F v /F m of the adaxial and abaxial surfaces has a reasonable linear correlation with the oxygen yield per flash after varied extents of photoinactivation of PSII. However, we obtained an even better linear correlation between (1) the integrated, transient electron flow (S) to P700 1 , the dimeric Chl cation in PSI, after superimposing a single-turnover flash on steady background far-red light and (2) the relative oxygen yield per flash. Leaves of C3 and C4 plants, woody and herbaceous species, wild-type and a Chl-bless mutant, and monocot and dicot plants gave a single straight line, which seems to be a universal relation for predicting the relative oxygen yield per flash from S. Measurement of S is non-intrusive, representative of the whole leaf tissue, rapid and applicable to attached leaves; it may even be applicable in the field.
Photosynthesis Research, 2012
Given its unique function in light-induced water oxidation and its susceptibility to photoinactiv... more Given its unique function in light-induced water oxidation and its susceptibility to photoinactivation during photosynthesis, Photosystem II (PS II) is often the focus of studies of photosynthetic structure and function, particularly in environmental stress conditions. Here we review four approaches for quantifying or monitoring PS II functionality or the stoichiometry of the two photosystems in leaf segments, scrutinizing the approximations in each approach. (1) Chlorophyll (Chl) fluorescence parameters are convenient to derive, but the information-rich signal suffers from the localized nature of its detection in leaf tissue. (2) The gross O2 yield per single-turnover flash in CO2-enriched air is a more direct measurement of the functional content, assuming that each functional PS II evolves one O2 molecule after four flashes. However, the gross O2 yield per single-turnover flash (multiplied by four) could overestimate the content of functional PS II if mitochondrial respiration is lower in flash illumination than in darkness. (3) The cumulative delivery of electrons from PS II to P700+ (oxidized primary donor in PS I) after a flash is added to steady background far-red light is a whole-tissue measurement, such that a single linear correlation with functional PS II applies to leaves of all plant species investigated so far. However, the magnitude obtained in a simple analysis (with the signal normalized to the maximum photooxidizable P700 signal), which should equal the ratio of PS II to PS I centers, was too small to match the independently-obtained photosystem stoichiometry. Further, an underestimation of functional PS II content could occur if some electrons were intercepted before reaching PS I. (4) The electrochromic signal from leaf segments appears to reliably quantify the photosystem stoichiometry, either by progressively photoinactivating PS II or suppressing PS I via photo-oxidation of a known fraction of the P700 with steady far-red light. Together, these approaches have the potential for quantitatively probing PS II in vivo in leaf segments, with prospects for application of the latter two approaches in the field.
Journal of Experimental Botany, 2010
The productivity of fruit trees is a linear function of the light intercepted, although the relat... more The productivity of fruit trees is a linear function of the light intercepted, although the relationship is less tight when greater than 50% of available light is intercepted. This paper investigates the management of light energy in peach using the measurement of whole-tree light interception and gas exchange, along with the absorbed energy partitioning at the leaf level by concurrent measurements of gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence. These measurements were performed on trees of a custom-built 'asymmetric' orchard. Whole-tree gas exchange for north-south, vertical canopies (C) was similar to that for canopies intercepting the highest irradiance in the morning hours (W), but trees receiving the highest irradiance in the afternoon (E) had the highest net photosynthesis and transpiration while maintaining a water use efficiency (WUE) comparable to the other treatments. In the W trees, 29% and 8% more photosystems were damaged than in C and E trees, respectively. The quenching partitioning revealed that the non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) played the most important role in excess energy dissipation, but it was not fully active at low irradiance, possibly due to a sub-optimal trans-thylakoid DpH. The non-net carboxylative mechanisms (NC) appeared to be the main photoprotective mechanisms at low irradiance levels and, probably, they could facilitate the establishment of a trans-thylakoid DpH more appropriate for NPQ. These findings support the conclusion that irradiance impinging on leaves may be excessive and can cause photodamage, whose repair requires energy in the form of carbohydrates that are thereby diverted from tree growth and productivity.
Photosynthesis Research, 2021
To finish this special issue, some friends, colleagues and students of Prof. Chow (Emeritus Profe... more To finish this special issue, some friends, colleagues and students of Prof. Chow (Emeritus Professor, the Research School of Biology, the Australian National University) have written small tributes to acknowledge not only his eminent career but to describe his wonderful personality.
Page 1. FRUTTICOLTURA - n. 5 - 2009 18 manifestato buoni valori di efficienza con Lapins, più bas... more Page 1. FRUTTICOLTURA - n. 5 - 2009 18 manifestato buoni valori di efficienza con Lapins, più bassi, però, nella cv Re-gina. ... Re-gina, ad esempio, è stata più rapida nella messa a frutto an-che se meno produttiva di La-pins. Metodologia ...
There has been very little literature on the spatia l variability of fruit production in horticul... more There has been very little literature on the spatia l variability of fruit production in horticulture crops published to date. Most of the existing liter a u e refers to data collected at picking time. Crop load data taken prior to hand thinning and pri or to harvest were collected in 3 blocks of a commercial apple ( Malus domestica Borkh.) orchard in the Po valley (Ferrara, Italy). The purpose of the survey was to characterize the withi n field variability of crop load, using spatial statistics, and assess the effectiveness of the hand-thinning treatment to eliminate this variability. Crop load estimations were taken at 15 6 sites pre and post hand-thinning over a defined distance (0.8 m) and the data used to model a variogram and associated spatial analysis. Variation in the spatial distribution of the fruit load prior to the hand-thinning was observed, indicating a possibility to spatially dif ferentially manage the orchard. No spatial variation in fruit number was observed prior...
espanolSe exploro el uso de mallas de sombreo para mitigar los efectos de una sequia en manzanos ... more espanolSe exploro el uso de mallas de sombreo para mitigar los efectos de una sequia en manzanos cultivados en Bolonia (Italia). Se evaluaron arboles bajo tres mallas de sombreo (roja–50%, blanca–50% y negra–20%) y sin mallas regados con tres dosis dos meses antes de la cosecha: 260, 115 y 50 mm. La produccion fue de 4 kg para todos los arboles sin malla, indicando que las dosis de riego representaron escenarios de sequia. Los arboles sombreados que recibieron 50 mm produjeron 6 kg y los que recibieron 260 y 115 mm entre 9 y 13 kg. El incremento en la productividad se explico por: 1) mejora del estado hidrico, 2) retraso en la fecha cosecha, dando mas tiempo para que la fruta crezca, y 3) una reduccion de la inhibicion de la fotosintesis por un exceso de radiacion. Las mallas de sombreo se plantean como una solucion para evitar una disminucion de la produccion cuando el estres es moderado. EnglishNet shading was tested to mitigate the effect of a drought on apple in Bologna (Italy)....
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Papers by pasquale losciale