Cellulose-derived carbon inputs to paddy soils have increased with the widespread adoption of straw return as a sustainable rice cultivation practice. However, the effect of cellulose-derived carbon inputs on photosynthesized C allocation from aboveground to belowground and the utilization of the photosynthesized C by soil microbial groups remain poorly understood. In this study, using continuous 13CO2 labeling, 13C allocated to the above- and belowground C pools was measured to study the effects of cellulose and nitrogen fertilization on photosynthetic dynamics and microbial rhizodeposit utilization. Cellulose, nitrogen, and combined fertilization of cellulose and nitrogen promoted the allocation of photosynthates to the shoots. The combined fertilization of cellulose and nitrogen maximally decreased the allocation of photosynthesized C in the belowground C pools, including roots, soil organic matter, dissolved organic C, microbial biomass C, and phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs), leading to a dominant microbial community that utilized the rhizodeposit shift by different fertilization practices. Cellulose or nitrogen fertilization increased the percentage of 13C in the Gram-positive (G+) (a15:0, i15:0, and i16:0) and Gram-negative (G−) (17:1ω8c) groups, while the combined fertilization of cellulose and nitrogen stimulated the G+ (a17:0), actinomycetes (10Me16:0 and 10Me18:0), fungi (18:1ω9c), and anaerobes (cy19:0) groups. Moreover, cellulose promoted the incorporation of rhizodeposits into soil macro-aggregates, thereby decreasing the utilization of rhizodeposits by microorganisms (13C-PLFA). The findings of this study suggest that under the prevalent practice of cellulose-derived C and N fertilization inputs, belowground photosynthetic C allocation and microbial utilization may decrease, potentially facilitating the retention of rhizodeposit-derived C in paddy soils.
Chilli veinal mottle virus (ChiVMV, Potyvirus capsivenamaculae) is an emerging potyvirus threatening tobacco production in China, but its transmission biology remains poorly understood. Here, we molecularly characterized a ChiVMV isolate based on the coat protein (CP) gene from tobacco collected in Huaping, Yunnan Province, China. The CP gene consisted of 861 nucleotides encoding 286 amino acids and shared 95.25% identity with global isolates. Phylogenetic analysis placed the isolate within the Yunnan clade. We systematically investigated the effects of acquisition access period (AAP), inoculation access period (IAP), vector density, and temperature on transmission efficiency by Myzus persicae. qPCR assays revealed that a 5 min AAP was sufficient to achieve a viral load comparable to the maximum, whereas extending the AAP to 20 min resulted in reduced acquisition. Viral load in aphids declined progressively after acquisition, with residual amounts at 0.5 h, 1 h, 12 h, and 24 h post-acquisition representing 37.5%, 21.3%, 5.6%, and 2.9% of the initial copy number per aphid, respectively. Transmission assays showed that the highest efficiency was achieved under the tested conditions with an AAP of 5 min, an IAP of 24 h, a density of 5 aphids per plant, and a temperature of 25 °C. A significant interference between AAP and IAP was also observed. These findings provide insights into ChiVMV epidemiology and establish standardized conditions for resistance screening and transmission studies.
Seed oil content is one of the primary breeding objectives in soybean. However, the genetic basis of seed oil content remains largely unexplored. In this study, we employed a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population consisting of 201 lines derived from a cross between Feidong and Guanyun, to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for seed oil content in soybean under five environments. High broad-sense heritability (92.34%) indicates a substantial genetic contribution to phenotypic variation in this population and set of environments. A high-density genetic map containing 11,220 SNP markers was constructed, spanning 2507.62 cM, with an average distance of 0.22 cM between markers. By jointly using five QTL mapping methods, a total of 24 QTLs for seed oil content were identified, including eight stable QTLs detected in at least three environments and seven QTLs identified by all five methods. Out of these QTLs, qOil-5-4, qOil-9-2 and qOil-10-3 were considered as the major and stable QTLs. Within these three major and stable QTL intervals, except that Glyma.05g244100 (GmMFT/GmST05) is an experimentally validated gene, the other six genes that were highly expressed during seed development stages were identified as putative candidate genes requiring further validation. In conclusion, the major stable QTLs and candidate genes identified in this study facilitate the dissection of the genetic architecture underlying seed oil content and hold great potential for application in developing new high-oil soybean cultivars after further fine mapping and validation in independent genetic backgrounds.
View-dependent canopy gap fraction is a directional descriptor of canopy openness that provides structural information for characterizing fruit-tree canopy heterogeneity. However, existing LiDAR-based canopy characterization methods are limited in their stability for characterizing zone-specific variations in canopy occlusion. This study proposes a LiDAR point-cloud column projection method for estimating zone-specific view-dependent canopy gap fraction of fruit tree canopies. A flash LiDAR sensor and an RGB camera were used to acquire paired point-cloud and image data from a simulated fruit tree and real peach trees under matched viewing directions and consistent region-of-interest constraints. Image-derived canopy gap fraction, calculated from the blue-cloth background area in each 3 × 3 subregion, was used as the reference value. The proposed column projection method was compared with a regional volumetric occupancy method and a regional two-dimensional projection coverage method. Under the indoor method-development conditions, using 88 paired frames, the proposed method achieved a mean absolute error of 8.59%, a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.925, and a Spearman rank correlation coefficient of 0.914 relative to the image-derived reference values. In the preliminary semi-controlled outdoor evaluation using eight paired real-tree samples, the method achieved a mean absolute error of 10.48% and showed lower numerical errors and systematic bias than the two baseline methods. These results indicate that the proposed method can provide zone-specific view-dependent canopy gap fraction estimates that are more consistent with image-derived reference values under the tested conditions.
Our study investigated the protective effects of seed priming with 5mM polyamine spermine (Spm) on the biochemical and transcriptional responses of winter wheat during Fusarium culmorum infection. We tested the effects of the priming in two age groups of plants via two pathogen infection approaches. In the seed-inoculated plants, infection with F. culmorum induced severe cellular damage and oxidative stress, as evidenced by increase in electrolyte leakage, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, and hydrogen peroxide levels. The pathogen also triggered metabolic changes in the plants by elevating reducing sugars, free proline, total osmotically active solutes and peroxidase activity, while at the same time suppressing the activity of catalase. On the other hand, the 5 mM Spm seed priming significantly mitigated this pathogen-induced damage. The priming effectively lowered most oxidative stress biomarkers and reduced the over-accumulation of osmolytes. Spm also restored the suppressed catalase activity, stabilized superoxide dismutase activity and altered the pathogen-mediated transcriptional response of the tested defence enzymes. Furthermore, spermine priming enhanced glutathione S-transferase activity in infected 30-day-old plants. Overall, our findings demonstrate that 5 mM spermine seed priming modulates the physiological response to F. culmorum in wheat by optimizing antioxidant enzyme activity and returning the studied metabolic parameters to near control levels.
This study aims to elucidate the effects of split-topdressed nitrogen (N) via micro-sprinkling fertigation on grain filling and N translocation and overcome the bottleneck in the synchronous enhancement of yield-quality under traditional border irrigation with broadcast N application. Using Gaoyou 2018 (strong gluten) and Heng 4399 (medium gluten), four treatments were established: conventional border irrigation with N at jointing (I1), micro-sprinkler irrigation with N at jointing (I2), micro-sprinkler irrigation with N at jointing and anthesis (1:1; I3), and micro-sprinkler irrigation with N at jointing, anthesis, and 12 days after anthesis (DAA) (5:3:2; I4). Results showed that I4 achieved the highest grain yield (10,578.6 kg·ha−1; +9.6% average), primarily attributed to significantly increased thousand-kernel weight (TKW; +1.7–4.2 g). I4 accelerated mid-to-late filling, extended the active filling period, and increased final grain mass by 1.5–4.6 g. I4 promoted post-anthesis N uptake and its remobilization to grains, improving nitrogen uptake efficiency (NUpE). I4 elevated grain protein content (gliadin-to-glutenin ratio +6.0%), improved gluten characteristics, and enhanced bread-baking quality, with these advantages being more pronounced in the strong-gluten cultivar. Overall, I4 synergistically enhances grain yield and quality by optimizing grain filling and N translocation. This study provides a theoretical basis for mitigating N leaching and ammonia volatilization while implementing high-yielding, high-quality cultivation practices.
The increasing demand for sustainable agricultural practices has driven growing interest in organic fertilizers derived from waste streams as alternatives to mineral fertilizers. This study evaluated, in a pilot trial, the effectiveness of using raw digestate, composted digestate and composted sewage sludge in a crop rotation over two consecutive years of maize and Italian ryegrass. Crop yield, forage quality, and soil physicochemical properties were assessed to determine the potential of these recycled organic nitrogen sources. The results differed between the two species of forage. In maize, organic fertilizers maintained yield and forage quality comparable to chemical fertilization, while composted sewage sludge significantly increased average plant height. These findings indicate that recycled organic amendments can partially or totally replace mineral nitrogen fertilizers, contributing to nutrient recycling and waste valorization within a circular economy framework. In contrast, Italian ryegrass showed lower yield under organic fertilization than under chemical fertilization, suggesting that additional management strategies may be required to optimize nutrient availability for this crop. Furthermore, raw digestate application tended to increase soil pH, which may provide benefit subsequent crop. Overall, the results suggest that digestate and sludge-based fertilizers are promising alternatives for maize performance, although their effectiveness in Italian ryegrass requires additional strategies.
Surface ozone (O3) adversely affects winter wheat production. However, due to the lack of spatially continuous ozone exposure datasets directly linked to crop yield responses, the assessment of ozone-induced crop losses remains uncertain. Winter wheat, a major food crop in China, is highly sensitive to ozone. Its primary cultivation region—the North China Plain (NCP)—overlaps with severe ozone pollution areas, creating significant risk asuperposition. To address this, we employed a spatiotemporal LightGBM (ST-LightGBM) model with ground observations, atmospheric reanalysis, and satellite retrievals to reconstruct a 10 km resolution dataset of daily 7 h average (M7) and daytime accumulated ozone exposure index (AOT40) across China from 2015 to 2022. The model performed robustly; SHAP analysis showed that downward solar radiation and 2 m temperature explained over 42% of ozone variability. From 2015 to 2022, despite pollution controls and the COVID-19 pandemic, surface ozone showed a phased upward trend (0.83 μg m−3 yr−1), with O3 concentrations increasing across 79.22% of the study area and the NCP most affected. Applying M7 and AOT40, the average annual relative yield loss of winter wheat ranged from 3.44% to 7.20% (M7) and from 26.50% to 36.54% (AOT40), corresponding to economic losses of 2.21–4.44 billion USD and 16.16–26.08 billion USD. Both metrics showed consistent trends, but AOT40 losses were substantially higher, highlighting the need to incorporate cumulative high-concentration exposure into agricultural risk assessments. These findings demonstrate that O3 pollution poses a substantial threat to winter wheat production in China. The reconstructed exposure metrics provide a quantitative basis for identifying high-risk agricultural regions and inform targeted mitigation strategies to safeguard food security under intensifying O3 pollution.
Various stress factors lead to increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation and increased damage to various plant tissues. Data obtained using fluorescence microscopy show that under abiotic stress, the most intense ROS staining is observed in the epidermal and cortical cells of the root cap and division zones. Increased ROS formation under abiotic stress activates the antioxidant system in wheat. The expression level of the MnSOD and Cu/ZnSOD genes in the Orenburgskaya 22 wheat variety (Triticum aestivum) is more than twice that in the Zolotaya variety (Triticum durum). An amount of 150 mM NaCl activates MnSOD and Cu/ZnSOD gene expression in the Orenburgskaya 22 wheat variety, increases glutathione (GSH) content, and activates GSH-associated enzymes. Therefore, different wheat genotypes have different mechanisms for neutralizing ROS. The antioxidant quercetin reduces ROS formation and also promotes antioxidant system activation in the Orenburgskaya 22 variety and has virtually no effect on the Zolotaya variety. However, it does reduce ROS before and after NaCl treatment in both wheat genotypes. Salt stress causes an increase in the number of small and large autophagosomes in root cells of Triticum durum wheat, while, in Triticum aestivum, large vacuoles not marked by ATG8 and small autophagosomes near the nucleus form in root cortex cells. Treatment of control plants with quercetin does not increase the number of autophagosomes. Treatment with quercetin after salt stress does not increase the number of ATG8-marked autophagosomes in cells of either genotype. Treatment with quercetin before salt exposure leads to an increase in the number of autophagosomes in durum wheat cells. PCR analysis of autophagy genes revealed features of the initiation of autophagosome formation. Thus, quercetin exerts a protective effect against salt stress. However, its use is limited to plants with high flavonoid content. Quercetin may have promising applications in agriculture.
Urea discharge can become unstable as interparticle cohesion increases under moisture-affected conditions. This study combined bulk-solid mechanics, discrete element method (DEM) simulations, contact parameter calibration, and bench testing to investigate urea arching and vibration-assisted discharge. Dry-contact parameters for urea particles and a polypropylene (PP) hopper were calibrated using angle-of-repose and sliding tests. The calibrated simulations differed from the physical target values by 1.71% for the angle of repose and 3.98% for the sliding friction angle. In a separate DEM sensitivity analysis, JKR surface energy was prescribed at 0, 0.05, 0.15, and 0.30 J·m−2 as an effective adhesion parameter rather than as a calibrated moisture state. The maximum EDEM-exported Total Force signal increased from 2.283 N at 0 J·m−2 to 2.704 N at 0.30 J·m−2 (18.5%), whereas the mean particle velocity during the common 5–18 s pre-discharge interval decreased from 0.0613 to 0.0397 m·s−1 (35.3%). Two combined excitation settings were evaluated: 29.17 Hz/0.2 mm and 58.33 Hz/1.2 mm. Because frequency and amplitude changed simultaneously, their individual effects could not be isolated. The bench tests yielded mean discharged masses of 566.808, 492.435, and 464.305 g for the 58.33 Hz/1.2 mm, 29.17 Hz/0.2 mm, and non-vibrating conditions, respectively. The 58.33 Hz/1.2 mm setting increased the mean mass discharged during the 30 s collection interval by approximately 22.1% relative to the non-vibrating control. The corresponding between-run coefficients of variation were 3.628%, 3.580%, and 4.303%; these values describe repeatability between replicate runs rather than temporal or spatial discharge uniformity. Overall, increasing prescribed adhesion reduced particle mobility in the DEM simulations, whereas the 58.33 Hz/1.2 mm combined excitation increased discharged mass under the tested conditions. The experiments do not directly demonstrate crystal bridge rupture or isolate an independent frequency effect.
Climate change-driven increases in temperature and changes in precipitation regimes are altering the timing and patterns of weed emergence in agricultural systems. Consequently, accurately predicting weed emergence and selecting the best timing for control are becoming more crucial over time. Weeds such as Echinochloa crus-galli (barnyardgrass) are particularly problematic due to their widespread adaptability and competition across varying cultivation environments, making an accurate prediction of the timing of emergence crucial for management. The objective of this study was to characterize the emergence pattern of E. crus-galli under diverse environmental conditions and to develop and evaluate a Gompertz-based thermal-time model for predicting seedling emergence. Increased temperatures enhanced emergence rates and speeds in both growth chamber and greenhouse conditions. The effective accumulated temperature required for 50% emergence was relatively consistent (54–69 °C·d). Furthermore, high emergence percentages were maintained at soil moisture levels of 80% or greater. Across years, emergence responses differed substantially under field conditions. Independent validation using a field dataset collected in 2026 demonstrated that the model developed from the 2025 dataset successfully reproduced observed emergence patterns under field conditions (RMSE = 2.7%p, MAE = 2.3%p). Regional emergence analyses suggested a tendency toward earlier emergence under recent temperature conditions, particularly in warmer regions, although these predictions were based on only two years of field observations. Overall, the present study provides a preliminary evaluation of the applicability of a thermal-time-based approach for describing E. crus-galli emergence under Korean environmental conditions. Additional validation across multiple locations and growing seasons would further strengthen the general applicability of the model.
Paddy fields are a major agricultural hotspot for nitrous oxide (N2O), contributing approximately 11% of global agricultural emissions. While elevated CO2 and warming individually regulate N2O emissions by modulating soil carbon, nitrogen (N) availability and microbial activity, the effects of concurrent elevated CO2 and temperature (ECT) and the underlying microbial mechanisms under field conditions remain poorly understood. Here, we used a free-air CO2 enrichment and temperature increase (T-FACE) system in a rice–wheat cropping system to investigate the impacts of ECT on N2O emissions from rice paddies and identify the underlying biogeochemical and microbial mechanisms. Results showed that ECT increased area-scaled and yield-scaled N2O emissions by 15.3% and 17.6%, respectively. Mechanistically, during the peak emission period, ECT significantly increased soil NH4+–N content by 40.2% and the denitrification gene ratio [(nirK + nirS)/nosZ] by 27.5%. Furthermore, ECT increased the diversity of nitrifying communities but decreased that of denitrifying communities, while reshaping the composition of ammonia-oxidizing archaea and denitrifiers, thereby altering nitrification and denitrification. Overall, our field-based evidence suggests that ECT can stimulate N2O emissions primarily by increasing soil N substrate availability and shifting denitrifier communities in ways that may favor N2O accumulation. These findings offer mechanistic insights into climate-driven N2O emissions.
UAV-assisted greenhouse tomato pollination requires lateral airflow delivery toward flower clusters distributed along the crop canopy. To address this, an asymmetric duct was designed to passively redirect the rotor wake through geometric modification of three inner-wall curvature parameters (R1, R2, R3). Three-dimensional CFD simulations were conducted to evaluate the effects of these parameters on airflow redirection and aerodynamic performance. Compared with a conventional symmetric duct, the asymmetric duct shifted the high-velocity wake from a predominantly vertical direction toward the canopy side. Among the three parameters, R3 exerted the greatest influence: increasing R3 from 20 to 65 mm improved the lift-to-drag ratio from 24.7 to 184.2 but reduced the airflow velocity delivered to the pollination region from 6.48 to 2.82 m·s−1. The selected configuration (R1 = 11 mm, R2 = 20 mm, R3 = 25 mm) delivered an airflow velocity of 6.03 m·s−1 at an operating height of 1.44 m, with a lift of 7.04 N and a lift-to-drag ratio of 37.0. These results demonstrate that passive geometric asymmetry can redirect rotor-induced airflow toward the canopy side while balancing airflow delivery, operating height, and aerodynamic performance under greenhouse spatial constraints.
Agricultural multi-robot systems in narrow and dynamic environments require global coordination, semantic event interpretation, and responsive trajectory execution. This study presents an end–edge–cloud fast–slow semantic planning framework. The cloud maintains a farm topology and generates fleet-level dispatch policies; the edge hosts an asynchronous agentic vision–language planner and a fast trajectory planner; and the robot performs sensing, LiDAR odometry, low-level control, and execution. The fast planner reuses the latest valid semantic condition until an event-triggered update becomes available. The fast branch is pretrained on nuScenes and adapted using the training and validation subsets of a 3780-sample agricultural dataset comprising synchronized front- and rear-view images, robot states, motion histories, and future trajectories, with an independent 630-sample test set reserved for final evaluation. On an edge-side RTX 4080 SUPER, the complete planner achieves an average L2 error of 0.67 m, a fast-step latency of 96.3 ms, and a throughput of 10.4 Hz. In the four-robot topology experiment, the framework achieves a 100.0% success rate under the representative single-blockage condition and maintains an 86.7% success rate under the dual-blockage condition. During an approximately 30 min operation at a nominal semantic update rate of 2 Hz, the cloud and robot communication round-trip times average 24.43 and 3.85 ms, respectively, with no robot deadline misses, while the mean trigger-to-updated-trajectory latency of the full event-driven pipeline is 2357.37 ms. These results demonstrate the feasibility of assigning global coordination to the cloud, semantic reasoning and trajectory inference to the edge, and sensing and execution to the robot.
This narrative and conceptual review examines how irrigation management in Australian sugarcane can progress from practice-based efficiency improvement towards an integrated evidence system supporting productivity, water-quality improvement and nature-positive reporting. It reviews regional irrigation conditions, standard and best management practices, crop and water modelling, grower-facing scheduling, Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring and automation, remote sensing, forecast-informed irrigation and artificial intelligence. It then considers natural-capital, nature-positive and environmental-reporting frameworks relevant to reef-connected sugarcane landscapes. The review identifies a persistent gap between information generated by irrigation technologies and the credible, transparent and auditable indicators required for broader environmental reporting. A five-part integration pathway connects established components from farm monitoring and modelling, environmental-pressure estimation, supporting evidence, documented methods and defined reporting applications. Existing studies support individual components and several adjacent linkages; this review maps how they could operate as a whole system. Farm-scale technology outputs are treated as evidence of management actions or modelled pressure pathways rather than direct measurements of ecosystem condition. Smart irrigation is thereby positioned as an enabling component linking farm profitability, reduced pressure on soil and water assets, and more credible nature-positive water management in Australian sugarcane.
In vegetable production, excessive nitrogen fertilizer application leads to extremely low NUE and substantial reactive nitrogen losses. Given the abundant rainfall and the high residual soil nitrogen in soil after harvest, there is a pronounced risk of nitrate leaching during the summer fallow period. This study conducted a meta-analysis to systematically evaluate the effects of catch crops on nitrogen loss and soil nitrogen accumulation during the summer fallow season. The results showed that catch crops significantly reduced total N leaching loss by 58.10% through decreasing leachate volume by 24.54% and reducing leachate concentrations of TDN (43.36%), NO3−–N (34.47%), and NH4+–N (56.05%), respectively. Catch crops reduced soil NO3−–N storage by 36.28% and SIN storage by 40.61%, while increasing SON storage by 69.79% and MBN by 21.47%, thereby achieving a transformation from readily available mineral N to more stable organic N. Catch crops also enhanced ammonification, mineralization, and nitrification by 126%, 142%, and 42%, respectively, and altered the microbial community structure. The effectiveness of catch crops varied significantly among taxa: Poaceae exhibited the best overall performance, the genus Zea (especially sweet corn) showed the most comprehensive performance in integrated N control, while Fabaceae increased soil NH4+-N. Environmental factors, including soil depth, pH, organic matter, total nitrogen, initial NO3−–N, rainfall, and soil texture, collectively regulated the effectiveness of catch crops. In summary, a rational selection of catch crop species tailored to site-specific soil and environmental conditions can effectively reduce nitrogen leaching during the summer fallow period and support precision nitrogen management.
Saline water irrigation is a potential strategy to address agricultural water scarcity, but its effects on soil respiration and carbon balance are not well understood. To clarify these effects and promote the safe utilization of saline water resources, this study investigated five irrigation water salinity levels ECiw: 1.3, 3.4, 7.1, 10.6, and 14.1 dS·m−1 (i.e., 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 PSU; 1000, 2000, 4000, 6000, 8000 mg·L−1) in a winter wheat–summer maize rotation during 2024–2025. The results indicated that saline water irrigation caused salt accumulation during the wheat season, whereas salt leaching occurred during the maize season. When ECiw ≤ 3.4 dS·m−1, no notable decreases were observed in dry matter accumulation, water productivity, and carbon emission efficiency for both crops. In contrast, when ECiw > 3.4 dS·m−1, the crop yields and net carbon input of the crop rotation system were suppressed to a considerable extent. Furthermore, under saline water irrigation, the average soil respiration rate decreased by 4.1–25.2% during the wheat growing season, while that for maize decreased by 7.4–30.7%. Soil respiration in wheat was negatively correlated with soil salinity and pH, and positively correlated with soil moisture (p < 0.01). In maize, soil respiration was negatively correlated with salinity (p < 0.01), and positively correlated with soil moisture (p < 0.05) and temperature (p < 0.01). The entropy-weighted TOPSIS model identified 3.4 dS·m−1 as the appropriate irrigation salinity threshold for maintaining yield and carbon sink function in this rotation system.
Land-use change (LUC) and salinization interact synergistically to regulate depth-dependent fractionation and biological mediation of soil organic carbon (SOC) in vulnerable agroecosystems. Unlike previous syntheses addressing these drivers separately, the present review integrates them within a depth-resolved biological framework to reveal their combined effects on fraction-specific distribution under contrasting anthropogenic and ionic regimes. In the topsoil (0–30 cm), LUC and salinity synergistically collapse fungal networks, suppress carbon use efficiency, and restructure microbial communities to accelerate particulate organic matter (POM) turnover and impair mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) formation. In the subsoil (>30 cm), salinity-driven clay dispersion and pore occlusion restrict oxygen diffusion and carbon accessibility, while LUC-induced loss of deep-rooting vegetation reduces carbon supply to mineral-associated pools. These depth-decoupled mechanisms render subsoil MAOM relatively resilient to direct ionic stress but highly vulnerable to land-use legacy, a distinction rarely represented in existing conceptual models. The evidence highlights key management implications, including restoring biological complexity in topsoil through reduced tillage, mycorrhizal re-establishment, and osmotic stress alleviation; conserving subsoil carbon by restoring deep-rooting vegetation and maintaining favorable ionic conditions for organo-mineral stabilization; and using depth-specific biomarkers, including enzymatic stoichiometry, fungal-to-bacterial ratios to detect SOC vulnerability before measurable losses occur. Future research should prioritize depth-explicit monitoring and integrated biological–physicochemical approaches to improve predictions of SOC dynamics. The resulting framework provides a mechanistic basis for depth-differentiated carbon management in salinizing landscapes.
In dense or structurally complex canopies, spray applications often fail to adequately reach the specific plant sites where pest organisms reside, typically the lower canopy and abaxial leaf surfaces. An additional challenge is balancing drift mitigation while providing adequate spray coverage and deposition. This study investigates spray deposition and coverage in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and Brussels sprouts (Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera DC.) crops using drift-reducing spray configurations. Across two growing seasons (2023 and 2024), seven spray configurations (varying per crop) were evaluated during field trials at three growth stages (early, mid and late). The configurations combined different application techniques (standard boom, air support, air-injection system, Wingssprayer, reduced boom height, droplegs) with nozzle types (flat-fan nozzles with 0%, 75%, and 90% drift reduction, and an angled nozzle). Deposition and coverage were quantified using artificial collectors (filter paper collectors and water sensitive papers) and multiple mineral chelate tracer analysis using spectrometry. This method provides a comparative assessment under standardized measurement conditions rather than absolute deposition on leaf surfaces. Significant interactions between spray configuration and collector position were observed in both crops (p < 0.001), except for relative deposition in potato at the mid and late growth stage, indicating that spray performance depended highly on canopy location. However, no consistent trends across configurations were identified. No single configuration outperformed or, more importantly, underperformed the others across all collector positions. This suggests that drift-reducing configurations could potentially be adopted without substantially compromising spray deposition and coverage, at least as indicated by measurements obtained with artificial collectors.
