Phenolic variability in fruit from the ‘Arbequina’ olive cultivar under Mediterranean and Subtropical climatic conditions

In the present work, we compared the phenol content and composition of fruit from the ‘Arbequina’ cultivar in four Mediterranean (in Andalucía, Southern Iberian Peninsula) and two Sub-Tropical (Canary Islands) locations throughout the harvest period. Two Mediterranean and two Sub-Tropical locations were maintained with drip irrigation, while the remaining two Mediterranean locations were in dry farming. Water availability and harvest date seemed to play more important roles than air temperature on the phenolic content and most of the studied components. The variability associated with location was a result of the high values observed in the two Mediterranean locations in dry farming, with respect to the other four maintained with drip irrigation. Few differences were found among the four drip-irrigated locations, despite the fact that two were Mediterranean and the other two Sub-Tropical. In addition, a sharp decrease was observed during the harvest period for phenolic content and most of the phenolic compounds.

Vineyard-specific climate projections help growers manage risk and plan adaptation in the Paso Robles AVA

California's wine grape growers will face increasing challenges under a changing climate as most production occurs near the boundaries of current varieties' climatic thresholds. As part of this study, we developed a method for transforming downscaled climate information from the publicly available Cal-Adapt database into useful and useable climate projections for vineyard managers and advisors in the Paso Robles American Viticultural Area. We shared vineyard-specific projections during interviews of 20 managers and advisors. Overall, interviewees expressed trust in the projections and found them helpful in reducing their psychological distance from climate change. The projections prompted consideration of strategies for managing future climate risk and planning adaptation, with the majority of adaptations associated with long-term decisions such as row orientation, variety selection, dry farming, crop diversification and relocation. Agri-climatic decision support tools such as the one prototyped here may prove especially helpful for incorporating climate adaptation into the long-term business planning and vineyard redevelopment decisions facing managers and advisors in the near future. This approach could be extended to other California wine grape regions or to other perennial crops with expected vulnerabilities to climate change.

Agroclimatic classification for assessment Of the crop potential of Karnataka

To plan cropping pattern and to bring out agricultural potential of a region, it is essential that the agro climatic classification is made on an objective and rational basis. Such an attempt has been made in this paper by devising an index called Water Availability Index (WAI). This index takes into account the distribution of the minimum water required by the crop. It utilizes the most probable number of the wet weeks for three threshold values of weekly rainfall and probability of dry spells of more than three weeks. The methodology developed is applied to dry farming tracts of Karnataka State. Using these information along with the information of the soil types and water requirement of different crops, cropping pattern can be assessed in each agro climatic zone, so that optimum use of the available moisture is made in stabilizing the crop production in the State.

Risks for Using FeCl3 Under a Submerged Condition, and Different Water Management to Reduce Uptake of Antimony and Cadmium in a Rice Plant

Soil pollution by multiple metal(loid)s is a common problem, and it is not easy to synchronously reduce their uptake in crops. Compounds containing iron (Fe) are often used to efficiently remediate soil metal(loid) pollution; however, its associated risks did not receive much attention especially under unsuitable soil water conditions. Pot experiments were set up using an antimony (Sb) and cadmium (Cd) co-contaminated soil treated with a continued submergence condition plus 5, 10, or 20 mg kg−1 FeCl3 (Experiment I), or treated with different water management including submergence, intermittent irrigation, and dry farming (Experiment II). Our results showed that the continued submergence resulted in excessive accumulation of arsenic (As) in different tissues of rice plants even if the soil As background concentration is low. High soil moisture content increased the available concentrations of Sb and As, but reduced that of Cd in rhizosphere soils, which was in line with their concentrations in different tissues of rice plants (Experiment II). Under a continued submergence condition, FeCl3 significantly stimulated As concentration in the shoots, roots (excluded Fe20 treatment), and husks, but reduced it in the grains. FeCl3 reduced Sb concentration only in the roots and grains, and reduced Cd concentration only in the husks, suggesting a limited efficiency of FeCl3 to reduce Cd uptake under a submergence condition. In this study, the dynamic changes of As, Sb, and Cd concentrations in soil solution, their available concentrations in rhizosphere soils, their accumulation in root iron/manganese plaques, and the relationships among the above parameters were also discussed. We suggested that if FeCl3 would be used to remediate the contaminated soils by Sb and Cd, dry farming for a short time is needed to avoid As accumulation, and intermittent irrigation is a potential choice to avoid the excessive accumulation of As, Sb, and Cd in the edible parts of rice plants.

Some aspects of thermal diffusivity for various soil layers in different harmonics

Values of thermal diffusivity (K) in different soil layers for the first three harmonics have been computed for six stations in the dry farming tract of India by using amplitude ratio and phase lag. In general, the combined effect of all these harmonics gives the values of K close to the order of the experimental values. It is found that the theory of simple heat conduction is not applicable to soil medium. While the lowest values of K in all the harmonics are found at Rajahmundry, the highest values are observed at either Hissar or Bhubaneshwar for the first two harmonics and at Pantnagar for the third harmonic. Strong annual and bi-annual cycles dominate at Hissar. Pantnagar and Bhubaneshwar while quarterly cycle is significant only at Pantnagar.

Effect of weather on growth and yield of cotton grown in the dry farming tract of peninsular India

In the present study the effect of meteorological parameters on cotton growth at three different stations in the dry farming tract of peninsular India were studied critically. Increase in minimum temperature (above normal) particularly at vegetative and flowering stages favoured the yield of three varieties of cotton (AHH - 468, MCU - 9 and MCU - 10) under study. Decrease in maximum temperature at flowering and boll development stages was found to be conducive for the higher yield of AHH – 468 variety of cotton at Akola. In general, relative humidity was positively correlated with the yield of AHH – 468 varieties at Akola and MCU – 10 varieties at Kovilpatti. Lower values of bright sunshine hours (<5 hours) during vegetative and flowering were found to be helpful for increased yield of cotton at Akola. Rainfall at the beginning of the season favoured the yield of the crop.

Drought monitoring over India through Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is a simple index to monitor the state of vegetation (stressed/unstressed) which can be derived from satellite data. Hence an attempt is made to find out the vegetation responses to rainfall through NDVI over the study area. Applicability of NDVI in drought monitoring is discussed using the NDVI and rainfall data for the period 1982-2003. The anomaly of NDVI is compared with the percentage departure of rainfall of corresponding years. Results showed a significant relation between the NDVI with the percentage departure of rainfall. The time series plots of averaged NDVI and seasonal rainfall (June-September) are done for NW India (21° N - 31° N, 68° E - 78° E), Central India (22° N - 27° N, 70° E - 77° E) and Peninsular India (16° N - 21° N, 74° E - 79° E) over the period 1982-2003 to analyze changes in vegetation pattern of India during the last two decades. Results indicated a clear linear relationship over NW and Central India. NDVI anomalies and the corresponding cumulative rainfall showed significantly linear correlation of 0.69 over NW India and 0.57 over Central India significant at 1% level but the correlation is found to be insignificant over Peninsular India which was only 0.04. Trend analysis of averaged NDVI over India showed that during last two decades the vegetation status had quite improved over the dry farming tracts of India.