Marta María Moreno

University of Castilla-La Mancha · Deapartamento de Producción Vegetal y Tecnología Agraria

Weed control in perennial crops is especially difficult in the first phases of crop establishment. Hydromulch is a pasty blend that hardens after application and has so far been used specifically for weed control for experimental purposes only. In this work we tested blends based on recycled paper, gypsum and lignocellulosic materials (wheat straw,...

Artificial lighting is complementary and single-source lighting for controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) to increase crop productivity. Installations to control CO2 levels and luminaires with variable spectrum and intensity are becoming increasingly common. In order to see the net assimilation of CO2 based on the relationship between the three...

Organic hydromulches (liquid spray-on mulches) have been used traditionally in land rehabilitation, mainly to mitigate post-fire runoff and erosion. However, in recent years, a new application of these materials as an eco-friendly alternative to the widely used polyethylene mulch, both in vegetable and woody crops, has been studyied. This work anal...

Tomato landraces are highly appreciated by consumers, who are willing to pay a price premium for them. But little is known regarding sensory perception and its relationship with fruit composition. The Spanish variety “Moruno” was selected as a model for this purpose. A collection of 30 populations was grown in different environments and evaluated b...

The plant soil relation in an extreme environment was studied with the aim of determining the physiological and/or ecological mechanisms involved in overcoming environmental constraints. In our work we have studied different aspects such as diversity, colonization strategies, dynamics, etc. of the vegetation that appears in a mining environment. Th...

The use of biodegradable (BD) plastic mulch materials as alternatives to the widely used low-density polyethylene (PE) is increasing nowadays, mainly for environmental reasons. However, the success of these materials depends, in addition to fulfilling their function, on completely degrading in the short term, which depends on both their composition...

Abandoned mine lands (AMLs), which are considered some of the most dangerous an-thropogenic activities in the world, are a source of hazards relating to potentially toxic elements (PTEs). Traditional reclamation techniques, which are expensive, time-consuming and not well accepted by the general public, cannot be used on a large scale. However, pla...

The biomonitoring of atmospheric mercury (Hg) is an important topic in the recent scientific literature given the cost-benefit advantage of obtaining indirect measurements of gaseous Hg using biological tissues. Lichens, mosses, and trees are the most commonly used organisms, with many standardized methods for some of them used across European coun...

Highly disturbed zones, such as abandoned minesites, provide a great challenge for a natural colonization by spontaneous flora. Metal sulphide waste, in contact with rainwater, cause acidic drainage that flows through small rills. At the time of storms, or heavy rain, the rills overflow and the acidic water affects a wide surface. A pH gradient is...

After the extraction of sulfide minerals such as galena, sphalerite and pyrite for decades, the abandoned minesites are a sort of mosaic of different substrates related with the different activities carried out in all kind of mineral management and processing. Accumulations of fine material (fine sand and silt) after the process of grinding the roc...

The Sierra Grande de Hornachos (SW area of the Iberian Peninsula in Extremadura, Spain) is the expression of the complex relationship among culture, modes of use and the potentialities of the territory. "Sierra Grande" area presents an enormous cultural richness (as result of the coexistence of Muslim, Jewish and Christian civilizationjs), a great...

Demands for tomato local varieties are increasing worldwide, especially in organic farming mainly for their high sensory value and attractive appearance. This is the case of the “Moruno” tomato type, widely grown in the Mediterranean countries and greatly due to its highly appreciated organoleptic attributes but low yield or a short postharvest per...

Lead-zinc mining has been very important activity from antiquity to the last century in many areas of Spain and has left a legacy of degraded areas, with large volumes of mining waste. The San Quintín area (Ciudad Real, Spain) is an example of this. The objective of this work was to study the soil and vegetation in this area, in terms of pollution...

Purpose We investigated the effect that ashes may have on the soil microbial activity. Our hypothesis is that different wood ashes and different proportions of them could have beneficial or detrimental effects depending on the applied dose. Materials and methods Dehydrogenase activity and soil oxygen consumption were used to evaluate the potential...

A common effect of cold temperatures on plants is dehydration. When the temperature decreases below some specific thresholds, olive trees, as other sensitive crops, reduce their leaf water potential and transpiration rates even when soil water content is not limiting. The aim of our trial was to study the relationships between climatic conditions a...

Mercury is considered a very toxic element and important efforts are currently being made aimed at reduce or even eliminating its usage. Despite this trend, there are still sites where contamination by this metal is very marked, especially in the mining environment of Almadén where it has been exploited for thousands of years. The several forms in...

Polyethylene plastic mulches are widely used in agriculture due to the countless advantages they have. However, the environmental problems associated with their use have led us to look for alternative mulch materials which degrade naturally and quickly, impact the environment less and function satisfactorily. To this end, biodegradable plastics and...

After more than 50 years of abandonment, a metal-sulfide mining area is being gradually colonized by plant populations resilient enough to withstand extremely hard edaphic conditions. The vegetation of these habitats is of great interest due to its particular physiological adaptations to endure both high heavy metal concentrations and acidic enviro...

Ectomycorrhizas not only facilitate plant nutrition and drought protection but also play an important role in the whole ecosystem through their interaction with mineral soil particles. Numerous studies have established that ectomycorrhizae possess special abilities to attack minerals and to release and mobilize the elements contained therein (Lande...

This work aims to develop an alternative methodology that enables monitoring the environmental differential that agroecological management involves in order to consolidate feasible payments for environmental services generated by organic agriculture. For this purpose, LANDSAT images have been used, and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (ND...

Olive (Olea europaea L.) is widely grown around the Mediterranean Basin, an area characterized by hot dry summers and cool wet winters. There is a wide knowledge about its water relations during summers, but however a scarcity of works in cold conditions. In this work, ‘Arbequina’ olive trees in a heated soil with a temperature above 15 ºC were com...

Deficit irrigation scheduling needs accurate indicators and in recent decades, continuous plant indicators have been developed. However, threshold values that could be useful in commercial orchards are not commonly reported. The water potential is a discontinuous measurement commonly used as a reference in the description of water stress level. In...

The activity of the soil enzymes, especially those linked to soil fertility, have become a very useful tool to evaluate the microbiological status of the soil. The dehydrogenase activity (DHA) is the most representative soil enzyme among the soil oxidoreductases. Phosphomonoesterases are also important enzymes involved in the P cycle of forest and...

The use biodegradable materials (biopolymers of different composition and papers) as an alternative to conventional mulches has increased considerably during the last years mainly for environmental reason. In order to assess the effect of these materials on the soil microbial activity during the season of a pepper crop organically grown in Central...

Mulch materials of different origin and colour are available in the agricultural sector as sustainable alternatives to the use of polyethylene (PE). Mulching modifies soil temperature and consequently affects crop yields. This work assessed the thermal and productive responses of different mulch materials in two different geo-climatic conditions du...

Degradable materials have been suggested to overcome accumulation in the field of persistent plastic residues associated with the increasing use of polyethylene mulches. New degradable materials have been proven successful for increasing crop productivity; however, their degradation in the field has been hardly addressed. A qualitative scale was us...

The soil microbial activity is linked directly with the maintenance of soil quality and fertility. Microorganisms are the primary decomposers in the soil, transforming organic matter into the raw materials needed for the growth of plants and other organisms. In order to eliminate weeds and pathogens, many pesticides are used in agricultural managem...

is the biggest vine-growing region in the world (about 500,000 ha) and one of the most important in terms of production of wine. The soils diversity should induce differences in the uptake of mineral elements by the vineyard. Of over the regional vine extension, 101 plots were selected and analyzed soil samples from each of them, following the desc...

Mulching is used to improve the condition of agricultural soils by covering the soil with different materials, mainly black polyethylene (PE). However, problems derived from its use are how to remove it from the field and, in the case of it remaining in the soil, the possible effects on it. One possible solution is to use biodegradable plastic (BD)...

The first results of the evolution of an organic-biodynamic cultivation of stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) in Extremadura (Spain) are shown here. The organic-biodynamic approach permits experimentally for a more holistic view of the crop development process what means the understanding and quantification of its evolution at different scales. The researc...

The use of eco-friendly mulch materials as alternatives to the standard polyethylene (PE) has become increasingly prevalent worldwide. Consequently, a comparison of mulch materials from different origins is necessary to evaluate their feasibility. Several researchers have compared the effects of mulch materials on each crop variable through univari...

Mulch materials of different origins have been introduced into the agricultural sector in recent years alternatively to the standard polyethylene due to its environmental impact. This study aimed to evaluate the multivariate response of mulch materials over three consecutive years in a processing tomato (Solanum lycopersicon L.) crop in Central Spa...

Open-air crops are important in Spanish horticulture. The limited number of herbicide active ingredients in minor crops, the waste problem of polyethylene (PE) plastic mulch and the high prices of biodegradable plastics leave hand-weeding and mechanical weed control as the most viable weed control methods. Different tools have been tested in northe...

The viability of an agricultural production system not only depends on the crop yields, but especially on the efficient use of available resources. However, the current agricultural systems depend heavily on non-renewable energy consumption in the form of fertilizers, fossil fuels, pesticides and machinery. In developed countries, the economic prof...

In natural ecosystems with no percolating moisture regime, the biogeochemical cycle can be considered a closed system because the nutrients extracted by the roots will be returned to the soil after a certain time. In organic farming, a cycle model as close as possible is taken as a guideline, but we have to consider that unlike natural ecosystems,...

Black polyethylene (PE) film is used for mulching in processing tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum P. Mill.) in Spain achieving a generally high weed control but causing a serious waste problem. Few herbicides are available for tomato, so that a biodegradable mulching is the desired solution which should provide high yield, high weed control and be ec...

Purple nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus L.) is a serious weed capable of piercing polyethylene (PE) plastic mulch used in horticulture. A biodegradable plastic, PE and four different papers were tested for 2 years in fields highly-infested with C. rotundus in Zaragoza (Spain). All four papers were able to withstand all weed species. C. rotundus plants pe...

In organic farming, crop fertilization is largely based on the decomposition of organic matter and biological fixation of nutrients. It is therefore necessary to develop studies conducted to know and understand the soil biological processes for the natural nutrient supplies. The effect of three fertilizer managements (chemical with synthetic fertil...

During the last years, agricultural practices have led to increase yields by means of the massive consumption on non-renewable fossil energy. However, the viability of a production system does not depend solely on crop yield, but also on its efficiency in the use of available resources. This work is part of a larger study assessing the effects of t...

Energy balances in agriculture production have been widely studied since the 1970s. Researchers have performed detailed energy balances for different crops and farm management systems all over the world in attempts to assess the efficiency and environmental impact of production systems. This work is part of a larger study assessing the effects of t...

Since the beginning, man has tried to control nature and the environment, and the use of energy, mainly from non-renewable sources providing the necessary power for that. The consequences of this long fight against nature has reached a critical state of unprecedented worldwide environmental degradation, as evidenced by the increasing erosion of fer...

Within the framework of the assessment of the use of ashes from biomass combustion as improvers agents of physical and physicochemical characteristics of the soils and its reintroduction in the cycles of matter in a clean and environmentally sustainable way, we propose a research to check the effect that ashes may have on an specific soil as we ass...

Appropriate soil management is the key to agricultural sustainability, since soil properties determine, to a greater or lesser extent, the type of management that should be practiced, and also because in the long term, soils are positively or negatively altered by agricultural practices. However, the complex and variable nature of soil processes ma...

Black polyethylene as mulch is the most extended material among vegetable growers; however, photodegradable and biodegra- dablefilmshaveappearedasanalternativetoconventionalmulchesduetotheriskoftheprogressivecontaminationofsoils.Reflec - tive materials reflect back most of the incoming solar radiation, being recommended in areas characterized by hi...

The mycelial growth of eleven Fusarium oxysporum strains, eight isolated from seabed soil of the South-eastern Mediterranean coast of Spain and three formae speciales from diseased plants were tested on potato-dextrose-agar adjusted to different osmotic pressures with either KCl or NaCl (-1.50 to -144.54 bar) at 10°C intervals ranging from 15 to 35...

In October of 2008, decayed garlic bulbs (Allium sativum L. cv. Blancomor de Vallelado) were received from a producer in Segovia, Spain. In November of 2009, similar symptoms were observed on stored bulbs (cvs. Blancomor de Vallelado and Garcua) from each of 30 municipalities in northwest Segovia and Valladolid. A minimum of one sample was collecte...

Sixteen traditional pepper cultivars from Castilla-La Mancha (Central Spain) were morphologically characterized, focusing on aspects related to fruit and seeds. A multivariate statistical analysis interpreted satisfactorily the information obtained in the characterization of the cultivars studied. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) resulted in...

The prevalence of airborne Fusarium species was determined in the South East coast of Spain. Air-dust (down fall dust) was collected during September 2007, July, August and October 2008. Five different Fusarium species were isolated from the dust: Fusarium oxysporum, F. solani, F. equiseti, F. dimerum, and F. proliferatum. Pathogenicity assays were...

The use of plastic materials for mulching is a very common practice for vegetable crops. Black polyethylene is the most widely used due to its excellent properties and low cost. However, the massive use of these materials supposes an environmental risk. In the last few years, the use of starch-based biodegradable films has been introduced as an alt...

A field study was conducted during 2002 in Ciudad Real (Spain) to evaluate the effect of irrigation and nitrogen fertilizer on yield of barley, which is one of the main crops in the agrarian economy of Castilla-La Mancha. The statistical design was a split-plot with four replications, considering the irrigation as the main plots (100% crop water re...

The present field study was conducted to analyse the physiological response of a pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) cropto different trickle irrigation rates, by means of periodical measurements of leaf water potential (leaf) and stomatal resistance(Rs) at predawn during the plant growth cycle and at different times of the day during the fruit-growing sta...

A field study was conducted from 1998 to 2000 in Ciudad Real (Spain) to analyze the productive response of thebarley (Hordeum vulgare L.) crop to different nitrogen-fertilizer strategies. The effect of N dose and its partitioningbetween sowing-time and top-dressing at tillering state on grain yield and yield components was evaluated, as well asthe...

The influence of different watering regimes and of potassium applications on the quality of the melon cultivar «Pielde Sapo» was studied over a two-year period (1995 and 1996). The statistical design was a split-plot with four replications,where irrigation was the main factor and applied potassium was the secondary factor. Water levels were determi...