Lorenzo Maria Massimo Abenavoli

Protected crops are intensive production systems characterized by high vegetation density, high temperatures, and high moisture, making them favorable environments for the development of pests and diseases. Consequently, these systems often require several interventions with agrochemicals to maintain profitable yields and high produce quality. However, the application of plant protection products (PPPs) in such systems is not efficient and poses environmental concerns. This study aims at analysing spray behaviour, particularly in terms of foliar deposition and losses to the ground according to spraying equipment and foliage height, focusing on a specifically designed and developed system for agrochemical application in protected crops, and comparing it with a commonly used spraying system, namely, the cannon sprayer. Such a system consists in a fixed net of tubing and anti-drip nozzles positioned at the top of the greenhouse’s apex, connected to a pneumatic sprayer ‘Special Serre 2000’ outside the greenhouse. Findings revealed a significant effect of the spraying system (Kruskal–Wallis χ² = 12.239, df = 1, and p-value = 0.0004681) on normalized foliar deposition, with higher values obtained using the fixed spraying system. In addition, a simulation of the spatial distribution based on the principle of inverse distance weighting (IDW) was performed for qualitative spray assessment, confirming the heterogeneity of foliar deposition over the greenhouse with both of the used equipment. In addition, losses to the ground were affected by both spraying equipment and captor position.

The energy consumption measurement is important to carry out a correct risk evaluation of workers during green area management with the scope to achieve workstyle improvements. In contrast to sporting activities, few studies have been conducted on the assessment of physical fatigue by determining the functional parameters of the human body and oxygen consumption in this sector. This study aims to measure the energy cost of weed control using a wearable telemetry system Cosmed K4. For this purpose, twelve male workers, grouped into three groups of four workers each, were monitored during the work of weed control carried out with a brush cutter (by testing three different cutting heads). The monitoring period lasted 18 min including a 5-min rest period at the end of work. This study shows how the use of facilitating tools such as brush cutters contributes to getting low energy metabolism rate values, in tests performed equally on average to 119 Wm⁻².

This study assesses the reliability of a non-destructive method for determining the in situ distribution of tree coarse roots within a scaled distance 6-fold the DBH by comparing the results with the actual 3D root architecture revealed by invasive methods. The root architecture of 22-year-old olive trees was determined non-destructively with a Root Detector device (Fakopp Enterprise Bt) using sonic speed and directly by a 3D digitizer (Fastrak, Polhemus) after soil removal. The radial and vertical distributions of the coarse root biomass and diameter in the soil as determined by the 3D digitizer were correlated with the root map detected by sonic speed. A highly significant correlation was observed between the coarse root biomass distribution and the sonic speed within 30 cm of soil depth, but this correlation decreased with increasing distance from the trunk, up to 120 cm. No correlations were observed between sonic speed and root diameter. The Root Detector was able to map the coarse roots of the olive tree in the soil environment, but only under certain conditions. First, root detection was more efficient within 30 cm of soil depth, provided that more than 35% of the total biomass of lateral roots occurs within this depth range. Second, the distance of 120 cm from the trunk, scaled as 6-fold the DBH, may be considered the threshold over which the sonic speed and the detection of roots markedly decreased. Third, Root Detector technology is unable to detect root size in terms of geometric parameters such as root diameter.

The biomass for energy purposes, coming from agroforestry systems and timber industry, can provide various environmental and socio-economic benefits.Among all renewable energy sources, agroforestry biomass represents both an important alternative source to fossil fuels and an opportunity for the socio-economic development of various marginal areas in Italy. In particular, agroforestry is a collective name of land use systems in which woody perennials are grown in association with herbaceous plants and/or livestock in a spatial arrangements, a rotation, or both in which there are both ecological and economic interactions between the tree and the non-tree components of the system. Estimating availability of biomass resources is important to assess bioenergy production potential and so bioenergy contribution to annual energy demand. In the supply of biomass to energy use, the planning of operations is the basis for sustainable development of agroforest system.Most existing forest practice rules and recommendations did not anticipate this increased extraction of woody biomass and offer no specific guidance on how much removal is healthy for ecosystems. Intensification of biomass utilization, particularly for energy and fuel needs, presents a range of potential environmental risks. Therefore, the research focuses on development of guidelines for increasing a sustainable biomass supply chain at local scale, in order to facilitate energy planning that considers the local system carrying capacity and the potential of substitution of fossil fuels.