Spring frost protection in orchards by under canopy sprinkler irrigation. (L'Accademia per il post Covid-19.)

Spring frost events are predicted to increase due to climate change. Yield losses caused by late radiative frosts can be highly remarkable in many fruit species, mostly stone fruits, grapes and kiwi, and active protection means are part of a general need for adaptation in orchard management. The principle of using over canopy and under canopy irrigation is based on the property of water that, when freezing, releases heat. Technical and management tools able to magnify such effect have been developed and here described for under canopy application, when the icing of water sprinkled to orchard grass allows adequate increase of the air temperature at canopy level.

Low disease incidence and cone bagging in Picea abies are associated with low genotypic diversity in Thekopsora areolata

Thekopsora areolata infects pistillate cones of Picea spp. with monokaryotic basidiospores in the spring. Receptive monokaryotic hyphae in the cones are fertilized by monokaryotic spermatia in the summer, and dikaryotic aecia are produced in cones in late summer. Infected cones produce no fertile seeds, meaning the disease causes large reductions in seed production. To understand the seasonal variation of T. areolata genotypic diversity, 548 aecia from 55 infected cones were sampled from multiple seed orchards in 2015, 2019 and 2020. Cone bagging experiments were performed during two seasons to investigate the sexual reproduction of T. areolata. In addition to the published simple‐sequence repeat (SSR) markers, we developed 10 new polymorphic SSR markers to improve the resolution of population genetic analysis. Aecia were genotyped with 18 SSR markers in total. In 2015, when disease incidence was high in the seed orchards, the T. areolata populations had high genotypic diversity (H = 4.69). In 2019 and 2020, when disease incidence was low, the T. areolata populations had lower genotypic diversity (H = 3.88 and 3.85) and several cones were dominated by a single multilocus genotype. The genotypic diversity of T. areolata in a recently established seed orchard was exceptionally low (H = 2.01). Seven bagged cones that were infected produced either aecial primordia or aecia with lower diversity than exposed cones. The results indicate that cross‐fertilization is important for sexual reproduction and aecia formation of T. areolata, and genotypic diversity of T. areolata increased with higher disease prevalence. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Plant Pathology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

The specter of empty countrysides and wetlands—Impact of hunting take on birds in Indo‐Burma

Hunting for the wild meat trade, medicines and other human uses has decimated Indo‐Burma's vertebrate biota and has led to widespread defaunation. Yet, there is surprisingly little data on how hunting impacts wild bird assemblages in different landscapes here. Based on concurrent snapshot surveys of bird hunting, food markets and hunting attitudes across six Indo‐Burma countries, we found that hunting threatens species not only in forested landscapes but also wetlands and farmlands such as orchards and paddy fields—ecosystems overlooked by past studies, with at least 47 species associated with wetlands and agricultural lands identified from market surveys across the region. High rates of mortality are suffered when hunting tools such as nets are used to exclude perceived bird pests in both aquaculture and agricultural landscapes, with over 300 individual carcasses of at least 29 identifiable species detected in one aquaculture landscape sampled in Thailand. We warn that the potentially unsustainable trapping of species for consumption and trade in Indo‐Burma, coupled with high incidental mortalities, could decimate the populations of erstwhile common and/or legally unprotected species. There is an urgent need for stronger regulatory oversight on the hunting take of wild birds and the use of hunting tools such as nets. Alongside this, conservation practitioners need to better engage with rural communities to address unsustainable hunting practices, especially outside of protected areas.

A Visual Recognition and Path Planning Method for Intelligent Fruit-Picking Robots

With the rapid development of economy and the increasing improvement of agricultural production level, people's demand for fruits is also increasing year by year. China is the largest fruit production and consumption country in the world. According to relevant statistics reported for China, by the end of 2019, the total amount of various fruits sold had reached about 270 million tons, with apples accounting for 48% of the global output and pears accounting for 69% of the national total output. However, China's fruit picking is still dominated by manual picking process, which takes a lot of manpower and time to complete, therefore resulting in low fruit picking efficiency. Some farmers are unable to complete fruit picking in a short time, resulting in a large number of fruits unable to be listed, resulting in huge losses. To solve this problem, this paper focuses on the visual recognition and path planning for intelligent fruit-picking robot. Using robot to complete fruit picking is the best way at present. This paper establishes a picking robot recognition and positioning system based on stereo vision, which is used to identify and locate the fruits planted in the orchard area. The coordinate error of the target point of the intelligent fruit-picking robot coordinate system is less than 10 mm, which has high accuracy. Then, the path of intelligent fruit-picking robot is planned based on visual feedback algorithm and biological stimulation neural network. Our empirical evaluations suggest that the proposed robot walks in the planting park in the shape of "zigzag" and realizes full-coverage path planning after 6 turns. The results show the efficiency of the intelligent method. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Scientific Programming is the property of Hindawi Limited and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Deficit Water Irrigation in an Almond Orchard Can Reduce Pest Damage

Irrigated almond orchards in Spain are increasing in acreage, and it is pertinent to study the effect of deficit irrigation on the presence of pests, plant damage, and other arthropod communities. In an orchard examined from 2017 to 2020, arthropods and diseases were studied by visual sampling under two irrigation treatments (T1, control and T2, regulated deficit irrigation (RDI)). Univariate analysis showed no influence of irrigation on the aphid Hyalopterus amygdali (Blanchard) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) population and damage, but Tetranychus urticae Koch (Trombidiformes: Tetranychidae) damage on leaves was significantly less (50–60% reduction in damaged leaf area) in the T2 RDI treatment compared to the full irrigation T1 control in 2019 and 2020. Typhlocybinae (principal species Asymmetrasca decedens (Paoli) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae)) population was also significantly lower under T2 RDI treatment. Chrysopidae and Phytoseiidae, important groups in the biological control of pests, were not affected by irrigation treatment. The most important diseases observed in the orchard were not, in general, affected by irrigation treatment. The multivariate principal response curves show significant differences between irrigation strategies in 2019 and 2020. In conclusion, irrigation schemes with restricted water use (such as T2 RDI) can help reduce the foliar damage of important pests and the abundance of other secondary pests in almond orchards.