Anabela Afonso Fernandes-Silva

• Professor
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro

We evaluated the effect of deficit irrigation on leaf relative water content (RWC), stomatal conductance (gs), midday shoot water potential (ΨMD), total chlorophylls, soluble sugar, total polyphenols, orto-diphenols, flavonoids and antioxidant activity in adult olive trees (‘Cobrançosa’) in field growing conditions in 2019. Five irrigation treatmen...

Sap flow measurements are widely used to evaluate transpiration in woody species. However, azimuthal and radial heterogeneity has been reported. In this study, the radial behaviour of sap flow in adult olive trees was analysed under full irrigated (FI) and sustained deficit irrigation (SDI30), irrigated with 30% of crop evapotranspiration. We used...

O olival compreende atualmente uma elevada posição estratégica no panorama de desenvolvimento rural do País. Nas últimas décadas, o setor do azeite tem vindo a assumir uma importância económica crescente, quer no contexto internacional como no nacional. A nível mundial, Portugal é atualmente o 4º maior país exportador, o 7º maior país produtor de a...

This systematic review explores the role of remote sensing technology in addressing the requirements of sustainable olive growing, set against the backdrop of growing global food demands and contemporary environmental constraints in agriculture. The critical analysis presented in this document assesses different remote sensing platforms (satellites...

Global warming presents a significant threat to the sustainability of agricultural systems, demanding increased irrigation to mitigate the impacts of prolonged dry seasons. Efficient water management strategies, including deficit irrigation, have thus become essential, requiring continuous crop monitoring. However, conventional monitoring methods a...

Deficit irrigation strategies are one of the chief alternatives to cope with water shortages in the actual context of climate change. Regulated (RDI) and sustained deficit irrigation (SDI) are the main deficit irrigation strategies that have been adopted in irrigated olive orchards. The success of the RDI depends on the exact period to impose the w...

The optimization of water use is essential in a climate change scenario, in which this natural resource will become increasingly scarce. To face this challenge, deficit irrigation has been used as a strategy in different crops. However, the adoption of this strategy requires a deep knowledge of the culture’s response in the presence of water scarci...

Brazil has emerged as the world’s largest soybean producer and exporter in recent years. In the Brazilian Amazon Biome, the state of Pará has become a new agricultural frontier over the last two decades due to a significant increase in soybean cultivation throughout its territory. However, it is essential to understand the associated effects on the...

The olive tree (Olea europaeaL.), widely cultivated in the Mediterranean countries for olive oiland table olive production, has an important economic role. In the age of climate change, it is cru-cial to know the importance of environmental impacts associated to the production system. Thus,the aim of this study was to characterise the environmental...

Content of leaf pigments such as chlorophyll a and b, chlorophyll a+b and carotenoids can provide valuable insight into the physiological performance of plants. These compounds have selective proprieties for light absorption and reflectance in the visible spectra that can be used to evaluate alternative methods to biochemical to estimate their cont...

The estimation of dendrometric parameters of tree crops is crucial to decision making support for ecological and economic reasons. However, traditional methods for its measurement are time-consuming and laborious. Remote sensing data acquired from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) combined with computer vision and Structure from Motion (SfM) algorith...

Climate change prediction indicates an increased likelihood of precipitation variability and droughts in the Mediterranean region. Previous studies demonstrated that microbial symbionts combined with supplementary irrigation could mitigate climate change effects and boost chickpea production in low-fertility soils. The aim of the study was to asses...

Recently, there has been an increase in the number of supply chain Life Cycle Assessments, from local cultivation to the final product and its disposal. Globally, the soybean supply chain has expanded. In the 2019/20 season, Brazil was the largest producer and exporter of this commodity worldwide. Currently, LCA publications addressing the environm...

Recently, Brazil turned the biggest soybean producer and exporter of the world. The state of Pará, located in the Brazilian amazon biome, was turned one of last agricultural frontier of the country, which increased positively the soybean cultivation along it is territory. However, it is necessary to know the associated environmental impacts along t...

Recently, Brazil became the biggest soybean producer and exporter in the world. The state of Pará, located in the Brazilian amazon biome, became one of the last agricultural frontiers of the country, which positively increased the soybean cultivation along it is territory. However, it is necessary to know the associated environmental impacts along...

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) currently ranks second in the world's production of grain legumes and it is considered a cheap source of plant-based protein. In Mediterranean regions, predicted changes in climate are likely to further worsen drought stress and increase the economic vulnerability of chickpea production. Plant growth promoting bacteria...

Harvest timing in olive orchards has a strong effect on the quality and quantity of oil yield, but many farmers still lack simple and affordable quantitative tools for rationally deciding appropriate harvest dates. This study presents and tests a conceptual model for predicting fruit oil content (Of, g oil fruit⁻¹) from inexpensive measurements of...

Water scarcity and the increasing demand for irrigation in olive orchards lead to the adoption of deficit irrigation approaches to save water. A partial rootzone drying (PRD) irrigation technique has been proposed for woody crops as an agronomic practice to improve water productivity. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of this irrigat...

BACKGROUND Cropping practices focusing on agronomic water use efficiency and their impact on quality parameters must be investigated to overcome constraints affecting olive groves. We evaluated the response of olive trees (Olea europaea, cv. ‘Cobrançosa’) to different water regimes: full irrigation (FI, 100% crop evapotranspiration (ETc)), and thre...

Yield and quality of fruits are multifaceted traits involving various plant and fruit processes that, for a given genetic makeup, depend on environmental factors and agronomic practices. Crop yield has to meet the demand of a growing population , but crop quality is a challenging issue affected by consumer's behavior and increasingly associated wit...

In regions with Mediterranean climate, water is the major environmental resource that limits growth and production of plants, experiencing a long period of water scarcity during summer. Despite the fact that most plants developed morphological, anatomical , physiological, and biochemical mechanisms that allow to cope with such environments , these...

A flexibilidade e a eficiência dos veículos aéreos não tripulados (VANT), fazem destes uma alternativa às plataformas de deteção remota tradicionais. Consequentemente, dados de diferentes sensores, processados com recurso a software fotogramétrico, permitem a criação de modelos orto-retificados. Assim, os VANT revelam ser vantajosos na realização d...

A determinação da altura e do diâmetro da copa das árvores é de grande importância por razões biológicas e económicas, estando, estes parâmetros, relacionados com a produtividade das culturas e com os recursos hídricos, necessários ao seu desenvolvimento. A obtenção destes valores pode ser conseguida com recurso às imagens aéreas de alta resolução,...

Although the importance of irrigation to increase productivity, it reduce unproductive time and mitigate the effect of alternate bearing. In this region, there is a lack of information of irrigation needs and the response of regional cultivars to deficit strategies to ensure rational use of wate

Aims To evaluate the effects of changes in water stress and variable evaporative demand on water potential (Ψ), relative water content (RWC) and gas exchange during two consecutive years (2005 and 2006) providing insight into the mechanisms of stomatal control in the little-studied cultivar ‘Cobrançosa’. Methods Measurements of water potential, ga...

Olive tree (Olea europaea L.) is one of the most important fruit trees of Mediterranean countries due its food products, table olives and olive oil that are well known by its high biophenol contents. Different water regimes affect the general development and the composition of olive fruit [1] leading to slight changes in the taste of the resulting...

Table olives (Olea europaea L.) are an important part of the Mediterranean diet and are considered a quality contributor of daily intake of unsaturated lipids and a range of phytochemicals and antioxidants substances. For table olives consumption, fruits are opportunely processed to reduce this natural bitterness, due mainly at the presence of gluc...

Results ofwork rates (trees/hour) and costs (per kg of olives harvested) from field trials performed in Portugal over more than tive years in olive orchards averaging 150 trees per hectare, was published by Almeida, A. et al (2001) and Almeida, A. et al (2007). Olives were harvested using two han/esting systems, both with the same trunk shaker, but...

When and how harvest olives are among the most important issues to improve quality and quantity to ensure the best net return to growers. Trunk shakers are commonly used in mechanical harvesting to detach olives. Field trials showed that with this equipment less than 100% of the production is detached, usually 70% to 90% (Michelakis, 2002). It is i...

Olive tree (Olea europaea L.) has been traditionally cultivated under rainfed conditions. However irrigation has a large impact on the productivity of olive orchards even with small amounts of water. As a result of the improvements in production brought about by irrigation there is a need to better understand the physiology of olive responses to ir...

A natural source of nitrogen (N) is needed to increase soil fertility in traditional olive orchards and to maintain the N nutritional status of olive trees. With this aim, we studied the introduction of legume cover crops in two olive orchards, which were converted into mulches and left on the ground as phytomass after they had been cut. The experi...

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of different irrigation strategies in virgin olive oil (VOO) composition and quality of cv. Cobrançosa, integrated in a protected denomination of origin of “Azeite de Trás-os-Montes” in the Northeast of Portugal. Three irrigation treatments were applied: T2-full irrigation that received a seasonal wate...

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of different irrigation strategies on the sensory quality of virgin olive oil (VOO) from the cv. “cobrançosa” integrated into a protected denomination of origin of “Azeite de Trás-os-Montes” in the Northeast of Portugal. Three irrigation treatments were applied: (T2)-full irrigation, which received a s...

The olive sector has a crucial economic, social, cultural and ecological relevance in the Mediterranean region, where tillage and herbicides application are still generalized practices. However, these practices oppose the recommendations of UE Common Agricultural Policy and thus, management methods that decrease requirement for agricultural chemica...

A produção de biomassa pelas culturas está relacionada com a quantidade de radiação fotossinteticamente ativa intercetada (IPAR) e absorvida pelas folhas, bem como à eficiência com que estas convertem a energia radiante em energia química, pela fotossíntese. O objetivo deste trabalho foi o de avaliar a eficiência do uso IPAR pela oliveira (0/ea eur...

In NE Portugal, winegrapes are a major crop being an important source of income for local farmers. Located in deep valleys, protected by mountains, the climate in the Demarcated Region of Douro is characterised by scarce rainfall and large evapotranspiration losses during the summer season. A study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of different...

The Douro Wine Region (Port Wine Region) in Portugal is known by its vineyards that are located in very hilly terrain, with over 70% in hillsides with a slope higher than 30%. Vitis vinifera L. 'Moscatel Galego-Branco' evapotranspiration (ET) measurements by the eddy covariance technique were carried out for the first time in this region, over undu...

A field experiment with 2,200m2 was performed from 2004 to 2006, in northeast Portugal, to evaluate the response of a commercial olive (Olea europaea L. cv. “Cobrançosa”) orchard to different irrigation regimes on growth and yield. The trees were subjected to three irrigation treatments: rainfed conditions (T0), irrigation with 30% (T1) and 100% (T...