Residues of six pesticides in fresh peach—nectarine fruits after preharvest treatment

One of the key features of the new cultural systems is the control of harmful agents with environment-friendly methods. In this study, the residue levels of chlorothalonil, iprodione, bupirimate, pirimicarb, chlorpyrifos and fenoxycarb in different peach??nectarine cultivars were investigated. It was found that, with the exception of chlorpyrifos, the residue levels of all pesticides were lower than the Maximum Residues Limits (MRLs) in all peach??nectarine cultivars used. The detected levels of chlorpyrifos were higher than the MRLs in the cultivar ??Maria Bianca?? 7?days after application, but in cv. ??Legory Hkcb?? dropped to very low levels 27?days after application. The degradation over time of the above pesticides in fruits was investigated in the peach cv. ??Andross??. The detected residue levels of bupirimate, iprodione, fenoxycarb, chlorpyrifos and pirimicarb in this peach cultivar were much lower than those recommended by the European Union (MRLs) 33, 22, 22, 28, and 63?days, respectively, after application, whereas the residue levels of chlorothalonil were below the limit of detection by the analytical method used. All pesticides showed a reduction over time. When examining the levels of residues of pirimicarb and chlorpyrifos in peaches (cv. ??Andross??) sampled from different parts of the tree canopy, no significant difference was found between samples collected from the top and the middle parts of the canopy; however, residues of pirimicarb were significantly higher in samples collected at the bottom of the canopy. Overall, the pesticide regime gave residue levels much lower than those of MRLs, in all peach??nectarine cultivars. This use of chemicals is in accordance with features of the new cultural systems to produce fruits with no or minimal pesticide residues, in contrast to the conventional system in which pesticide residues are not considered. Attention should however be paid to chlorpyrifos which should be applied at least 27?days before harvest. Factors related to the cultivars and the position of fruits in the tree canopy should be considered when sampling fruits for pesticide residues analysis.     

Expert knowledge for translating land cover/use maps to General Habitat Categories (GHC)

Monitoring biodiversity at the level of habitats and landscape is becoming widespread in Europe and elsewhere as countries establish international and national habitat conservation policies and monitoring systems. Earth Observation (EO) data offers a potential solution to long-term biodiversity monitoring through direct mapping of habitats or by integrating Land Cover/Use (LC/LU) maps with contextual spatial information and in situ data. Therefore, it appears necessary to develop an automatic/semi-automatic translation framework of LC/LU classes to habitat classes, but also challenging due to discrepancies in domain definitions. In the context of the FP7 BIO_SOS (www.biosos.eu) project, the authors demonstrated the feasibility of the Food and Agricultural Organization Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) taxonomy to habitat class translation. They also developed a framework to automatically translate LCCS classes into the recently proposed General Habitat Categories classification system, able to provide an exhaustive typology of habitat types, ranging from natural ecosystems to urban areas around the globe. However discrepancies in terminology, plant height criteria and basic principles between the two mapping domains inducing a number of one-to-many and many-to-many relations were identified, revealing the need of additional ecological expert knowledge to resolve the ambiguities. This paper illustrates how class phenology, class topological arrangement in the landscape, class spectral signature from multi-temporal Very High spatial Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery and plant height measurements can be used to resolve such ambiguities. Concerning plant height, this paper also compares the mapping results obtained by using accurate values extracted from LIght Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) data and by exploiting EO data texture features (i.e. entropy) as a proxy of plant height information, when LIDAR data are not available. An application for two Natura 2000 coastal sites in Southern Italy is discussed.     

Effect of pre-incubation humidity and temperature treatment on the in vitro germination of avocado pollen grains

Optimum in vitro germination of pollen grain of the avocado cultivars Fuerte, Nabal, Ettinger, Bacon and Zutano occurred at 25 °C. However, there were significant differences between cultivars in percentage germination and relative humidity (RH) requirements for optimum pollen grain growth. The most sensitive cultivar to relative humidity was Fuerte, in which the germination of pollen grain rose from 11.4%, at 40% RH, to about 50%, after one hour at 100% RH. The germination% of Nabal pollen grain was already high at 40% RH and was not increased by higher relative humidity. Increased relative humidity also helped to sustain the viability of avocado pollen. At 30 °C and 5% RH the pollen grains of Fuerte quickly lost its ability to germinate, at 40% RH for 1 hour, germination was reduced spectacularly compared to pollen kept in saturated with moisture environment where it was not affected the first 24 hours. The effects of temperature and relative humidity on fruit-set and yield of avocado are discussed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

First partial characterisation of small ruminant lentiviruses from Greece

Small ruminant lentivirus (SRLV) infections are widespread in Greece, but SRLVs have never been isolated and characterized. In this study, we present the sequence of a 574-nucleotide (191-amino acid) region of the gag gene of SRLV strains from four sheep and one goat from a single geographic area of Greece. All five sequences appeared to be closely related at both nucleotide (2.1-14.2% variation) and deduced amino acid (1.6-4.2% variation) level. Greek SRLV strains were closer to ovine prototypic strains (average divergence 16.8%) than to the caprine strain CAEV-Co (21% divergence). By amino acid composition, the Greek SRLVs were on the average more than twice as distant from CAEV-Co as from other ovine strains. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that Greek strains segregate into a unique group, separate from, but related to, other ovine prototype sequences.     

乳糖在仔猪料中的最佳水平

乳糖是一种缓泻药,也是提高仔猪早期生长性能的促进剂。因此,即使其成本能负担得起,也需要对刚断奶仔猪的饲喂量作详细的评估。     

Genetic diversity,structure and fruit trait associations in Greek sweet cherry cultivars using microsatellite based (SSR/ISSR) and morpho-physiological markers

It is important to couple phenotypic analysis with genetic diversity for germplasm conservation in gene bank collections. The use of molecular markers supports the study of genetic marker-trait associations of biological and agronomic interest on diverse genetic material. In this report, 19 Greek traditional sweet cherry cultivars and two international cultivars, which were used as controls, were grown in Greece and characterized for 17 morpho-physiological traits, 15 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci and 10 inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. To our knowledge, this is the first report on molecular genetic diversity studies in sweet cherry in Greece. Principal component analysis (PCA) of nine qualitative and eight quantitative morphological parameters explain over 77.33% of total variability in the first five axes. The SSR markers yielded a combined matching probability ratio (MPR) of 9.569 × e−12. The 15 SSR loci produced a total of 92 alleles. Ten ISSR primers generated 91 bands, with an average of 9.1 bands per primer. Expected heterozygosity (gene diversity) values of 15 SSR loci and 10 ISSR markers averaged at 0.683 and 0.369, respectively. Based on stepwise multiple regression analysis (MRA), SSR alleles were found associated with harvest time and fruit polar diameter. Furthermore, three ISSR markers were correlated with fruit harvest and soluble solids and four ISSR markers were correlated with fruit skin color. Stepwise MRA identified six SSR alleles associated with harvest time with a high correlation (P < 0.001), with linear associations with high F values. Hence, data analyzed by the use of MRA could be useful in marker-assisted breeding programs when no other genetic information is available.     

Reduction of Pb,Zn and Cd Availability from Tailings and Contaminated Soils by the Application of Lignite Fly Ash

The effectiveness of lignite fly ash for stabilization of Pb,Zn and Cd in tailings and contaminated soils was examined. Flyash was mixed with the contaminated soil or oxidic tailingssamples at various doses and pot experiments were performed.The effectiveness of stabilization was mainly evaluated by thestandard US EPA TCLP toxicity test. The 5-stage sequentialextraction procedure was also applied to determine the form ofcontaminants in the fly ash amended soil or tailings samples.Complementary EDTA extraction tests were also carried out. Thefly ash treatment resulted in the reduction of TCLP solubilityof Pb, Zn and Cd to below the respective regulatory limits at5 and 10% w/w fly ash addition rates in tailings and soil,respectively. Speciation of lead, in the treated soil andtailings samples indicated that there was a significanttransition of the heavy metals form from the exchangeable andcarbonate fractions to reducible and residual, suggesting thatthe potential mechanisms of heavy metals retention are, apartfrom increase of pH, sorption on the oxides and hydroxidessurfaces and binding with the hydrated fly ash compounds.     

Sewage sludge treated with bentonite,vermiculite or biochar can improve soil properties and enhance growth of grasses

Sewage sludge treated with 15% bentonite, vermiculite or biochar was evaluated as a soil amendment in comparison to limed and untreated sludge. Seven treatments were established to two soils, an acid and an alkaline, in three replications, i.e. 2% addition of sludge treated with bentonite, vermiculite, biochar and lime and application of 2% untreated sludge, inorganic fertilization and no sludge or inorganic fertilizers (control). Then, the soil treatments were used in a pot experiment with perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) as a test plant. Sludge treated with the clay minerals or biochar improved pH of the acid soil and significantly increased organic matter and available nutrients of both soils compared to control. Although no salinity or sodicity hazard was evidenced, the initial salinity of acid and alkaline soil increased by four-eight and two-three times, respectively, upon addition of all sludge treatments, especially that of untreated sludge. Moreover, soil available zinc (Zn) increased by four-eight times. Soil application of sludge treated with the clay minerals or biochar increased the total aboveground biomass yield of ryegrass in the acid and alkaline soil by 133%–171% and 72%–88%, respectively, compared to control and enhanced nutrient uptake by plants. Furthermore the microbial metabolic quotient indicated lack of low pH and heavy metal stress with addition of sludge to the acid soil. After three harvests of ryegrass, the residual effect of sludge on pH of acid soil and salinity, available phosphorus (P), Zn and boron (B) of both soils still persisted. Thus sewage sludge treated with 15% bentonite, vermiculite or biochar could be applied to soils at a rate of 2% (≈80 Mg ha⁻¹) to serve as soil amendment and fertilizer for grasses and pasture species; however, caution is needed regarding possible P build-up, Zn phytotoxicity and salinization risks.     

Rapid and direct low micromolar NMR method for the simultaneous detection of hydrogen peroxide and phenolics in plant extracts

A rapid and direct low micromolar 1H NMR method for the simultaneous identification and quantification of hydrogen peroxide and phenolic compounds in plant extracts was developed. The method is based on the highly deshielded 1H NMR signal of H?O? at ～10.30 ppm in DMSO-d? and the combined use of picric acid and low temperature, near the freezing point of the solution, in order to achieve the minimum proton exchange rate. Line widths of H?O? below 3.8 Hz were obtained for several Greek oregano extracts which resulted in a detection limit of 0.7 μmol L?1. Application of an array of NMR experiments, including 2D 1H-13C HMBC, spiking of the samples with H?O?, and variable temperature experiments, resulted in the unequivocal assignment of H?O? precluding any confusion with interferences from intrinsic phenolics in the extract.