Reinhard W. Neugschwandtner

Winter wheat grain quality is influenced by genetic and agronomic factors, including nitrogen (N) fertilisation. This study evaluated the effects of cultivar and N fertilisation strategy on the grain yield, some physical and geometric properties, colour, and chemical composition. Two cultivars, Activus and Chevignon, were compared under three N strategies: 40, 100, and 170 kg N ha⁻¹ (N40, N100, and N170). Grain yield and its components did not differ significantly between cultivars or among N fertilisation strategies. The number of grains per ear was numerically higher in Chevignon, but the difference between cultivars was not statistically significant. Cultivar affected bulk density and grain size distribution; Activus had a higher bulk density and a higher proportion of grains > 2.8 mm, whereas Chevignon had more smaller grains. Increasing N supply did not affect the geometric characteristics of wheat grains. The colour parameters a*, b*, and chroma were highest under N40 and lowest under N170, whereas hue showed the opposite trend. Dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) differed between cultivars, and CP was also affected by N strategy. Phosphorus (P) and magnesium (Mg) contents did not differ statistically in relation to the independent variables included in the experiment.

This study aims to assess the environmental profile and identify environmental hotspots of indoor hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) cultivation through environmental impact analysis under four scenarios combining two nutrient solutions and two lighting intensities (540 W and 900 W). Indoor cultivation of industrial hemp is becoming increasingly relevant as plant production shifts to controlled environments, raising the need to evaluate its environmental implications. The assessment was conducted using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology in accordance with the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards, applying a cradle-to-gate system boundary and a functional unit of 1 kg of dried hemp inflorescence. Primary data were obtained from a controlled cultivation experiment, while secondary data were drawn from validated databases. The carbon footprint ranged from 1050 to 1610 kg CO₂ eq per kilogram of dried inflorescence. Scenarios with 900 W lighting showed 30–35% lower impacts per kilogram compared to 540 W variants. Electricity production and consumption were identified as major environmental hotspots, dominating most impact categories. The study concludes that improving input–output efficiency is essential for sustainable indoor cultivation and that integrating renewable energy sources, such as photovoltaics or biomass, could further reduce environmental impacts.

Transitioning towards soil health‐oriented farming systems is fundamental to mitigate future challenges such as climate change, soil degradation, and increasing global food demands. In this study, we evaluated soil health, crop yields, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at a long‐term experimental site in Central Europe that comprised two cropping systems: a conventional system with regular tillage, low‐diversity crop rotation, and minimal cover cropping, and a conservation system with shallow tillage, diverse crop rotation, and extensive cover cropping. We assessed soil health using 13 physico‐chemical and biological parameters, calculated field‐scale GHG emissions, and analysed yield dynamics over an eight‐year period to evaluate potential crop yield penalties under conservation farming. We observed significant soil health advances (+7%) and reductions in GHG emissions (−43%) with conservation farming, while crop yields for all cultivated crops remained stable. Improvements in soil health were particularly pronounced for nitrogen cycling and microbial‐driven processes. For several measured soil health parameters, we found a larger effect of crop species compared to farming system. Further, positive management effects on soil were apparent particularly for winter wheat and to a lesser extent for maize and sugar beet, strongly emphasizing the need for standardized soil health assessments that take crop species into account. Our study demonstrates that easily implementable conservation farming measures such as reduced tillage, increased crop diversity, and enhanced cover cropping can substantially improve soil health and long‐term agricultural sustainability without compromising crop yields. Conservation farming thus emerges as a viable strategy to support resilient crop production in temperate regions.

Recently, an urgent need has been identified to increase the biodiversity of the cereal crops that dominate European farmlands. In this aspect, the addition of pea as a component of winter cereals seems justified, but the appropriate selection of the cultivars to create a mixture suitable for agricultural practice is probably essential. Therefore, arbitrarily selected winter pea cultivars were intercropped with some chosen cereals in order to assess certain yield parameters using a two-factorial field experiment conducted on brown soil. The studied factors were the cultivar of pea (Pisum sativum), ‘Pandora’ and ‘E.F.B. 33′ respectively, and the cropping system: single crop vs. cereal/legume intercropping mixture. Cereals used were rye (Secale cereale L.) ‘Amber’ and triticale (× Triticosecale) ‘Borwo’. To assess the potential of winter pea in this cultivation system, the yield level, some plant parameters (above- and belowground), and LER and CR indices were applied. Additionally, to demonstrate the effect of intercropping on pea, the root system, root nodulation, and nitrogen uptake efficiency were assessed. It was shown that yield and plant indices were closely related to the intercropping variant used. The key element determining the potential of the cultivated crops was the selection of cultivars. The most productive one was proved pea ‘E.F.B. 33’, which formed the largest number of nodules when intercropped with triticale. Moreover, it was ascertained that the drought period during the formation of nodules negatively affected their structure, which had a rather negative impact on the pea yield.

Estimating wheat traits based on spectral reflectance measurements and machine learning remains challenging due to the large datasets required for model training and testing. To overcome this limitation, a simulated dataset was generated using the radiative transfer model (RTM) PROSAIL and inverted based on an artificial neural network (ANN). Field experiments were conducted in Eastern Austria to measure spectral reflectance and destructively sample plants to measure the wheat traits plant area index (PAI), nitrogen yield (NY), canopy water content (CWC), and above-ground dry matter (AGDM). Four ANN-based RTM inversion models were setup, which varied in their spectral resolution, hyperspectral or multispectral, and the inclusion or exclusion of background soil spectra correction. The models were also compared to a simple vegetation index approach using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Red-Edge (NDRE). The RTM inversion model with hyperspectral input data and background soil spectra correction was the best among all tested models for estimating wheat traits during the vegetative developmental stages (PAI: R² = 0.930, RRMSE = 17.9%; NY: R² = 0.908, RRMSE = 14.4%; CWC: R² = 0.967, RRMSE = 17.0%) as well as throughout the whole growing season (PAI: R² = 0.845, RRMSE = 27.7%; CWC: R² = 0.884, RRMSE = 20.0%; AGDM: R² = 0.960, RRMSE = 13.7%). Many models presented in this study provided suitable estimations of the relevant wheat traits PAI, NY, CWC, and AGDM for application in agronomy, breeding, and crop sciences in general.

Intercropping of arable crops might provide yield benefits over monocrops. To assess the effect of sowing date and sowing ratio on biomass formation and competition over time, a two-year field experiment with wheat and pea plants was performed in Eastern Austria with two sowing times (autumn vs. spring) and with the following substitutive wheat–pea sowing ratios (%:%): 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75, 12.5:87.5 and 0:100. For both crops, facultative cultivars were used. Compared to spring-sowing, autumn-sowing resulted in earlier development of plants, taller plants, faster soil coverage, a higher crop growth rate up to mid-May in the first year and early June in the second year, more above-ground dry matter production and in the second year also in a higher land equivalent ratio (LER) of intercrops. Sowing ratios affected absolute and relative growth rates of wheat and pea plants. Wheat, which was generally the stronger partner in the intercrops, out-competed pea plants in all intercrops in the first year due to a higher early crop growth rate and in the second year, when the monocrop biomass of wheat was lower than that of pea plants, even in the intercrops with lower wheat and higher pea share. All intercrops resulted in a yield advantage compared to the monocrops as indicated by the LER. At final harvest, this yield advantage was over both sowing times and all four intercropping ratios 14% in the first and 10% in the second year. The competitive abilities of individual crops in mixtures, as indicated by the partial LER, were not affected by the sowing time.

Fungi as heterotrophs are key participants in the decomposition of organic materials and the transformation of nutrients in agroecosystems. Ditch-buried straw return as a novel conservation management strategy can improve soil fertility and alter hydrothermal processes. However, how ditch-buried straw return strategies affect the soil fungal community is still unclear. Herein, a 7-year field trial was conducted to test the influences of burial depth (0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 cm) and the amount of ditch-buried straw (half, full, double) on the diversity, composition, and predicted functions of a soil fungal community, as well as the activities of carbon-degraded enzymes. Under the full amount of straw burial, the abundance of phylum Ascomycota was 7.5% higher as compared to other burial amount treatments. This further increased the activity of cellobiohydrolase by 32%, as revealed by the positive correlation between Ascomycota and cellobiohydrolase. With deeper straw burial, however, the abundance of Ascomycota and β-D-glucopyranoside activity decreased. Moreover, genus Alternaria and Fusarium increased while Mortierella decreased with straw burial amount and depth. FUNgild prediction showed that plant fungal pathogens were 1- to 2-fold higher, whilst arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi were 64% lower under straw buried with double the amount and at a depth of 40 cm. Collectively, these findings suggest that ditch-buried straw return with a full amount and buried at a depth less than 30 cm could improve soil nutrient cycles and health and may be beneficial to subsequent crop production.