Giuseppina Pennisi

Giuseppina Pennisi
University of Bologna | UNIBO · Department of Agri-Food Sciences and Technologies

Ph.D.

About

87
Publications
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Introduction
Giuseppina Pennisi is a researcher at the Research Centre for Agriculture and Biodiversity in the Urban Environment (RESCUE-AB) at the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences of the University of Bologna. During her PhD project, she focused on the study of plant physiology in indoor environments, addressing how different light conditions can affect plant development, secondary metabolism and physiological response. She has a Master Degree in Agricultural Science and Technology, with a dissertation on heavy metal contamination risks on urban grown vegetable crops and a Bachelor Degree in Marketing and Economics of the agro-industrial systems, with a dissertation on soilless systems for leafy vegetables cultivation.

Publications

Publications (87)
Article
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Within the current scenario of cropland use and forest surface loss, there is a need for the implementation of viable urban farming systems, e.g., indoor vertical farming (VF). Light management is fundamental in VF, although responses to light spectra are often species-specific. As the interest of consumers and farmers towards baby-leaf vegetables...
Article
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Climate change significantly impacts agriculture and forage production, requiring the implementation of strategies toward increased water and energy use efficiency. So, this study investigated the yield of forage cactus (Opuntia stricta (Haw.) Haw) under different irrigation depths using brackish groundwater (1.7 dS m−1), whose management was based...
Article
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Today, cities are growing—taking up more space and filling up with more people. The growth of cities reduces the Earth’s natural resources and the amount of land available for farming. As Earth’s population grows, food production must increase so that everyone will have enough to eat. Vertical farming is a type of farming that can be done within ci...
Chapter
Plant factories utilizing artificial light (PFALs) perform particularly well in terms of resource efficiency, although energy use, mainly due to the use of artificial light for plant photosynthesis, remains high. This chapter presents the latest innovations in horticulture, photobiology, climate management technology and urban symbiosis aimed at re...
Article
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Solar radiation entering a high-wire tomato greenhouse is mostly intercepted by the top of the crop canopy, while the role of lower leaves diminishes with age, turning them into sink organs rather than sources. Accordingly, the defoliation of basal leaves is a widely applied agronomic practice in high-wire greenhouse cultivation management. However...
Article
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African agriculture is bound to face challenges for its future food systems development and economic transformation. Indoor vertical farms with artificial lighting represent an opportunity that has been gaining relevance worldwide, thanks to their potential to enable high productivity rates, food quality and safety, year-round production, and more...
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Recent studies concerning the integration of agricultural practices in cities demonstrated that Urban Agriculture (UA) can boost new sustainable urban developments. New technologies allow to integrate soil-less cultivation in- and on- mixed-use buildings, creating new synergies between the built environment and the urban food system. Accordingly, r...
Article
Growing conditions and agronomical inputs play a key role in determining fruit qualitative and nutraceutical traits at harvest and post-harvest. The hereby presented research investigated the effects of pre-harvest supplemental LED interlighting on post-harvest quality of hydroponically grown tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum “Siranzo”). Three LED tre...
Article
Increasing urbanization rates, loss of natural resources and the effects of climate change are challenging the sustainability of European cities. Therefore, ensuring resilient urban food systems is crucial to achieve food and nutrition security. Conventional systems are increasingly vulnerable to present and future disruptions, which urges us to ch...
Article
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Light composition modulates plant growth and defenses, thus influencing plant–pathogen interactions. We investigated the effects of different light-emitting diode (LED) red (R) (665 nm) and blue (B) (470 nm) light combinations on Actinidia chinensis performance by evaluating biometric parameters, chlorophyll a fluorescence, gas exchange and photosy...
Article
Urban agriculture (UA) is sprouting up in the empty spaces of post-industrial landscapes. Beyond the opportunities toward improving local food supplies and economies, UA may also foster social inclusion and environmental sustainability. The project AGRiS, winner of the UrbanFarm2021 competition, was developed for Troisi Park in Naples (Italy), wher...
Article
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The metabolism of a building can be connected to a rooftop greenhouse, exchanging energy, water and CO2 flows, therefore reducing emissions and recycling cultivation inputs. However, integrating a rooftop greenhouse onto a building requires the application of stringent safety codes (e.g., fire, seismic codes), to strengthen and secure the structure...
Article
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Drought risk is significantly increasing as a consequence of climate change, and the Mediterranean basin will be among the most affected areas by water scarcity in Europe. The development of agronomic strategies enabling the reduction in drought stress in cultivated crops is, therefore, a crucial priority. Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) are soil am...
Research
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The following document contains a collection of seven factsheets. Those factsheets provide an overview on EU and national regulatory framework conditions and policies, which are relevant for the development of sustainable CRFS. They present current constraints and challenges of CRFS in the respective policy field as well as examples, possible sol...
Article
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Up to 75% of nitrogen (N) taken up during cauliflowers production is allocated to leaves, which are left as crop residues after harvest. The inclusion of cauliflower, cultivated alone or intercropped with legumes, in rotation schemes, is a promising tool to optimize N availability to subsequent crops. This original study assessed, for the first tim...
Article
In recent years, light emitting diodes (LEDs) have experienced a wide increase in their employment for protected horticulture in Northern Europe, offering the possibility to enhance plant growth under controlled environmental facilities. Light is an important source of energy for plant development and, therefore, the lack of a proper supply of sunl...
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Specialized metabolites from plants are important for human health due to their antioxidant properties. Light is one of the main factors modulating the biosynthesis of specialized metabolites, determining the cascade response activated by photoreceptors and the consequent modulation of expressed genes and biosynthetic pathways. Recent developments...
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The present work aims to explore the potential to improve quality of purslane microgreens by combining water salinity and LED lighting during their cultivation. Purslane plants were grown in a growth chamber with light insulated compartments, under different lighting sources on a 16 h d−1 photoperiod—fluorescent lamps (FL) and two LED treatments, i...
Article
Nowadays, literature is still limited on the effects that LEDs may trigger during postharvest. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of continuous monochromatic Yellow or Green light on total and individual phenolic and glucosinolate content of 9-day broccoli sprouts stored up to 15 days at 5 °C as a ready-to-eat product. In addition, a...
Article
Efficient use of light can improve crop yields and qualitative performance for controlled-environment agriculture. A spectral-shifting, unidirectional light-extracting photonic thin film has the potential to boost photosynthesis to improve greenhouse lettuce yield. Full text accessible here: https://rdcu.be/cmNs7
Article
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In indoor vertical farms, energy consumption represents a bottleneck for both a system’s affordability and environmental footprint. Although switching frequency (sf) represents a crucial factor in determining the efficacy of light emitting diodes (LED) lighting systems in converting electricity into light, the impact of sf is still underexplored. T...
Article
The main objective of this study was to evaluate the physiological and quality changes of fresh-cut red chard (Beta vulgaris) and rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) leaves illuminated during storage with monochromatic light emitting diode (LED) lamps, featuring different spectral component (red, green, yellow, white, blue and far-red) and same light in...
Article
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Intensive growing systems used for greenhouse tomato production, together with light interception by cladding materials or other devices, may induce intracanopy mutual shading and create suboptimal environmental conditions for plant growth. There are a large number of published peer-reviewed studies assessing the effects of supplemental light-emitt...
Article
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The growing population of tropical countries has led to a new awareness of the importance of vegetables as a source of essential foods and nutrients. The success of vegetable cultivation depends to a large extent on high-quality seedlings. This work aimed at evaluating the effects of different substrates and different nutrient solution concentratio...
Article
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The COVID-19 pandemic unveiled the fragility of food sovereignty in cities and confirmed the close connection urban dwellers have with food. Although the pandemic was not responsible for a systemic failure, it suggested how citizens would accept and indeed support a transition toward more localized food production systems. As this attitudinal shift...
Article
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The COVID-19 pandemic unveiled the fragility of food sovereignty in cities and confirmed the close connection urban dwellers have with food. Although the pandemic was not responsible for a systemic failure, it suggested how citizens would accept and indeed support a transition toward more localized food production systems. As this attitudinal shift...
Article
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Attention to urban agriculture (UA) has recently grown among practitioners, scientists, and the public, resulting in several initiatives worldwide. Despite the positive perception of modern UA and locally grown, fresh produce, the potential food safety risks connected to these practices may be underestimated, leading to regulatory gaps. Thus, there...
Chapter
The growth of the world urban population altogether with the detrimental effects of climate change and resource scarcity are currently exerting extreme pressure on our food systems. Innovation in vegetable crop production is being driven by plant cultivation technologies that are independent of soil fertility and availability, highly efficient in t...
Article
Link for download: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1ch233QCo9bJkP Rooftop agriculture (RA) is a building-based form of urban agriculture that includes both protected and nonprotected farming practices, such as rooftop greenhouses as well as open-air rooftop gardens and farms. The use of underexploited urban spaces on buildings for farming purposes...
Article
In response to the growth of urban population and the reduction of resources availability (e.g., arable land, water, and nutrients), new forms of agriculture that can be developed also in urban environment are gaining increasing popularity. Urban agriculture constitutes a viable opportunity for improving the city food security, also fostering local...
Article
In a rapidly urbanizing world, urban agriculture (UA) represents an opportunity for improving food supply, health conditions, local economy, social integration, and environmental sustainability altogether. While a diversity of farming systems is encountered in the different world regions, it is estimated that about a third of urban dwellers is invo...
Article
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In recent years, urban agriculture (UA) projects have bloomed throughout the world, finding large applications also in the developed economies of the so-called Global North. As compared to projects in developing countries, where research has mainly targeted the contribution to food security, UA in the Global North has a stronger multifunctional con...
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of both economic and environmental viability. Appli-plications on production costs, literature on optimal the number of hours per day correlates with the total-1-2 d-1-1 m-2 d-1-1-2 d-1-Lactuca sativa Ocimum basilicum-Eruca sativa Cichorium intybus mol m-2 s-1-plant species. In lettuce and chicory, the adoption of a-2 d-1-1 photoperiod resulted-2 d...
Article
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Plant Factories with Artificial Lighting (PFALs) are spreading due to the claimed efficiency in natural resources use, although at the cost of higher energy needs as compared with more traditional food systems. In recent years, research literature on PFAL technological features and management protocols has bloomed, mainly targeting innovation in li...
Article
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BACKGROUND The main objective of this study was to evaluate physiological and quality changes of minimally processed broccoli sprouts illuminated during postharvest storage under blue, red and far‐red LED lighting as compared to darkness or illumination with fluorescent light, as control treatments. RESULTS Morphological and microbiological change...
Article
Indoor plant cultivation systems are gaining increasing popularity because of their ability to meet the needs of producing food in unfavourable climatic contexts and in urban environments, allowing high yield, high quality, and great efficiency in the use of resources such as water and nutrients. While light is one of the most important environment...
Article
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Simplified soilless cultivation (SSC) systems have globally spread as growing solutions for low fertility soil regions, low availability of water irrigation, small areas and polluted environments. In the present study, four independent experiments were conducted for assessing the applicability of SSC in the northeast of Brazil (NE-Brazil) and the c...
Article
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In recent years, research on light emitting diodes (LEDs) has highlighted their great potential as a lighting system for plant growth, development and metabolism control. The suitability of LED devices for plant cultivation has turned the technology into a main component in controlled or closed plant-growing environments, experiencing an extremely...
Article
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In Northern Europe, the use of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is widely adopted in protected horticulture, enabling to enhance plant growth by ensuring needed radiative fluxes throughout seasons. Contrarily, the use of artificial lighting in Mediterranean greenhouse still finds limited applications. In this study, the effects of supplemental LED inte...
Article
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Water use efficiency is a main research target in agriculture, which consumes 70% of global freshwater. This study aimed at identifying sustainable water management strategies for the lettuce crop in a semi-arid climate. Three independent experiments were carried out on a commercial variety of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) by applying different irrig...
Article
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Canopy reflectance sensors are a viable technology to optimize the fertilization management of crops. In this research, canopy reflectance was measured through a passive sensor to evaluate the effects of either crop features (N fertilization, soil mulching, appearance of red fruits, and cultivars) or sampling methods (sampling size, sensor position...
Article
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LED lighting in indoor farming systems allows to modulate the spectrum to fit plant needs. Red (R) and blue (B) lights are often used, being highly active for photosynthesis. The effect of R and B spectral components on lettuce plant physiology and biochemistry and resource use efficiency were studied. Five red:blue (RB) ratios (0.5-1-2-3-4) suppli...
Article
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Notwithstanding that indoor farming is claimed to reduce the environmental pressures of food systems, electricity needs are elevated and mainly associated with lighting. To date, however, no studies have quantified the environmental and economic profile of Light Emitting Diodes (LED) lighting in indoor farming systems. The goal of this study is to...
Article
In the context of climate change and population growth, aquaculture plays an important role for food security, employment and economic development. Intensive recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) allow to treat and recycle fish effluents to reduce waste concentration in outflow water thereby reducing environmental contamination. RAS sustainabilit...
Article
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Indoor plant cultivation can result in significantly improved resource use efficiency (surface, water, and nutrients) as compared to traditional growing systems, but illumination costs are still high. LEDs (light emitting diodes) are gaining attention for indoor cultivation because of their ability to provide light of different spectra. In the ligh...
Article
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Urban agriculture has become a common form of urban land use in European cities linked to multiple environmental, social and economic benefits, as well as to diversified forms (from self-production allotments to high-tech companies). Social acceptance will determine the development of urban agriculture and specific knowledge on citizens’ perception...
Chapter
Urban agriculture (UA) is a strategic means of achieving sustainable urban food security now and into the future. While a number of different models of agriculture will be required to provide food for the concentrated number of people in urban spaces, UA can be key tool in helping urban residents meet micronutrient requirements, whose deficiency is...