Mining activities, while economically important, have caused significant soil degradation, affecting soil quality, ecosystem functioning, and sustainability in Andean ecosystems. This study developed an integral soil quality index based on physicochemical, microbiological, and nematode indicators to assess soil degradation in the Ollachea mining area, Peru. We collected soil samples from four land-use systems (natural pasture, Zea mays cultivation, Ficus sp. cultivation, and Eucalyptus sp. forest) during two dry and two rainy seasons. The proposed index integrates complementary indicators related to soil chemical properties, nutrient availability, metal contamination, microbial activity, and nematode community structure to characterize soil quality and detect ecological stress associated with mining disturbance. The results showed that the index effectively discriminated soil quality by land use and season, with Eucalyptus sp. forest soils showing the highest soil quality status, whereas cultivated and mining-impacted soils exhibited lower quality associated with greater environmental stress. The main contributors to soil stress were related to microbial and metal-associated indicators, particularly total actinomycetes (6.53), Al (1.87), and Fe (1.65), highlighting their relevance in mining-impacted soils. Furthermore, nematode-based biological responses increased the index's sensitivity to seasonal ecological changes. Compared with other soil quality indices, the proposed integral index performed better, showing strong correlations with soil quality patterns in both dry and rainy seasons (r = 0.97 and r = 0.95, respectively). Overall, this study shows that a nematode-enhanced integral soil quality index provides a robust, transferable approach for monitoring mining-impacted soils and supporting ecological restoration strategies in Andean ecosystems.
Peru's school feeding program applies largely uniform menus across regions with very different food cultures, yet little is known about how children and parents in these regions represent food. This cross-sectional study compared food perceptions and breakfast choices among school-age children (10-12 years) and their parents in five cities of southern Peru (Arequipa, Cusco, Moquegua, Puno and Tacna). Three projective techniques were applied: free drawing and a sorting task with 600 children from public primary schools (120 per city), and a breakfast composition task with 576 parents. Drawings were analyzed by correspondence analysis, sorting data by DISTATIS, and the cognitive salience index (CSI) was calculated for the foods selected by parents. Of the 1,023 foods depicted, 62.7% were healthy foods, 21.8% ultra-processed foods and 15.5% traditional dishes; the share of ultra-processed foods was highest in Tacna (36.6%). Children clearly distinguished healthy from unhealthy foods: fruits were classified as healthy and liked, ultra-processed foods as liked but unhealthy, and broccoli, beans, almonds and nuts as healthy but disliked. In the breakfast task, bread, oats and eggs were the most salient foods in most cities, whereas quinoa reached the highest CSI in Puno (0.39) compared with 0.11 – 0.23 in the other cities. Native foods such as quinoa and tarwi appeared mainly in the Andean cities of Cusco and Puno. These findings reveal marked regional differences in food representations and support adapting school menus to regional food preferences.
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) provides a primary source of caloric intake for over half of the global population. Aligning grain production with climate mitigation requires understanding how plant traits influence carbon balance under contrasting water regimes, which affect both trait expression and the fate of plant-derived carbon in soil and greenhouse-gas emissions. Here, the morphological and physiological attributes that govern carbon acquisition, allocation, and retention in rice were reviewed. Belowground, root traits contribute through soil exploration, rhizosphere activity, and structural accumulation, influencing resource acquisition, carbon inputs, and gas transport. Aboveground, shoot architecture, stay-green behavior, and source–sink coordination regulates canopy photosynthesis, reserve remobilization, and allocation to grain and residues. These complementary functions across genotypes, developmental stages, and water regimes, distinguishing plant carbon gain from soil retention and the net greenhouse-gas balance, were examined. Four operational archetypes, deep explorer, source maximizer, sink maximizer, and balanced integrator, are proposed as combinations of candidate traits for rice improvement and management. These proposed selection criteria are distinct from previously published observations, and their combined performance requires field validation. Evaluation would consider calibrated multimodal phenotyping with field measurements of yield, carbon allocation, ecosystem carbon budgets, and greenhouse-gas balances. The central hypothesis proposed as a result of this review is as follows: Combining deep root exploration with a coordinated supply of assimilates, the remobilization of reserves, and grain demand could improve carbon retention while maintaining grain yield, with outcomes that depend on the water regime and the fate of the residues.
Regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) combined with soil mulching may reduce irrigation requirements while limiting yield losses in leafy vegetables. This study evaluated the morpho-physiological, productive, and hyperspectral responses of lettuce subjected to pre-harvest RDI under different mulching conditions. The experiment was conducted in a protected environment using a randomized block design with three soil cover conditions (no mulch, double-sided black-and-white plastic mulch, and rice straw mulch), four periods of RDI imposed before harvest (0, 7, 14, and 21 days), and four replications. During the deficit periods, irrigation was reduced to 70% of crop evapotranspiration (ETc), which was determined daily using constant water-table lysimeters. A 14-day RDI period reduced the irrigation depth from 131.6 to 110.9 mm without mulch and from 47.2 to 39.4 mm with plastic mulch, corresponding to water savings of 15.8 and 16.5%, respectively. Plastic mulch resulted in the highest overall yield (2.05 kg/m²) and water productivity (49.91 g/L), compared with 1.90 kg/m² and 16.49 g/L without mulch. Lettuce maintained shoot fresh mass and yield under plastic mulch when irrigation at 70% ETc was imposed during the 14 days preceding harvest, whereas extending the deficit to 21 days reduced plant growth and yield and increased electrolyte leakage. These responses were also reflected in the spectral behavior of the plants. Therefore, combining plastic mulch with irrigation at 70% ETc during the final 14 days before harvest reduced irrigation water use by 16.5% while maintaining lettuce yield, indicating a defined pre-harvest window for reducing water application without a significant productive penalty.
Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) is a crop of considerable economic and cultural importance, and fine-flavor cocoa represents a differentiated market segment due to the complexity of its sensory profiles. Ecuador holds a prominent position in this segment, particularly because of Nacional cocoa, which is recognized for its floral and fruity attributes. The objective of this qualitative literature review was to analyze the organoleptic characterization of Ecuadorian cocoa in relation to genotype, agroecological conditions, and postharvest management. The literature was identified through a structured search of Scopus, ScienceDirect, and PubMed, updated through September 2026, and complemented with relevant background sources to contextualize and compare the findings. The results show that genotype establishes a sensory potential whose expression is influenced by environmental conditions and postharvest processing. Nacional cocoa and its derivatives were mainly associated with floral and fruity profiles, whereas CCN-51 more frequently exhibited cocoa, bitterness, and astringency attributes. Fermentation and drying were key stages in the development and modification of the sensory profile. Compounds associated with quality included aldehydes, esters, alcohols, and pyrazines, related to floral, fruity, cocoa, and roasted notes, whereas polyphenols and methylxanthines were mainly associated with bitterness and astringency. The integration of sensory and instrumental methods enabled associations to be established between chemical composition and sensory perception. Overall, the evidence indicates that the organoleptic quality of Ecuadorian cocoa results from the combined influence of genotype, agroecological conditions, and postharvest management. These findings provide criteria for optimizing processing and strengthening the differentiation of Ecuadorian cocoa in specialty markets, while highlighting the need to standardize sensory protocols and conduct multilocation and multiyear studies to assess the stability of quality attributes.
