Miguel Â. Almeida Pinheiro de Carvalho

Universidade da Madeira | UMA

Drosophila suzukii is one of the main pests that attack soft-skinned fruits and cause significant economic damage worldwide. Madeira Island (Portugal) is already affected by this pest. The present work aimed to investigate the potential distribution of D. suzukii on Madeira Island to better understand the limits of its geographical distribution on...

Soil degradation derived from the combination of human activities or climate changes, emerges as a menace to agriculture and sustainable development. The compromised quality of the soil, caused by factors like excessive drainage and reduced organic matter, adversely affects its ability to retain water, perform essential functions, absorb nutrients,...

The advancement of technology associated with the field, especially the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) coupled with multispectral cameras, allows us to monitor the condition of crops in real time and contribute to the field of machine learning. The objective of this study was to estimate both productivity and above-ground biomass (AGB) for t...

Apresentação de resultados dos ensaios realizados com milho cultivar de Santana, com aplicação de corretivos orgânicos no solo, nomeadamente composto orgânico e biochar. Apresentação foi inserida na Sessão I: Itinerários técnicos em modo de produção biológico

Biostimulants are an interesting strategy to increase crop tolerance to water deficits, and there is an extensive bibliography on them. However, most of them need to be treated continuously to increase protection throughout the growth cycle. In this context, we chose menadione sodium bisulfite, whose protective effect against water deficit has been...

Beta patula Aiton is a crop wild relative (CWR) which belongs to the Gene Pool 1b and is considered a Critically Endangered species, and is present in very specific environments, such as the Desembarcadouro islet (DI) in Ponta de São Lourenço or Chão islet (CI) in the Desertas Islands. The ISOPlexis Center (University of Madeira) has been providing...

Encapsulation in agriculture today is practically focused on agrochemicals such as pesticides , herbicides, fungicides, or fertilizers to enhance the protective or nutritive aspects of the entrapped active ingredients. However, one of the most promising and environmentally friendly technologies, biostimulants, is hardly explored in this field. Enca...

The agrotech revolution is emerging and aims to use advanced precision technology, such as real-time analysis of soil nutrients and weather conditions using sensors to meet the future demands for food in a more sustainable, efficient, and eco-friendly way. IoT is remodeling agriculture, enabling farmers with a wide range of techniques, namely preci...

The threats to agrobiodiversity ultimately affect our future food security. Countries bonded to national or international biodiversity conservation legislation should conserve and sustainably use their agrobiodiversity. Landraces are a key element of agrobiodiversity which is largely endangered due to lack of their systematic conservation, and part...

Climate—Madeira Strategy (CMS) foresees two models to describe the climate scenarios for the Madeira region in 2050 and 2070. These scenarios anticipate an average temperature rise of 1.4 to 3.7 °C and a decrease in precipitation by 30 to 40%. Consequently, Madeira’s agriculture will suffer the impacts of climate change. To understand these impacts...

Sewage sludge (SS) is derived from wastewater treatment plants and can be used as a biofertilizer when properly stabilized. This work aimed to evaluate SS application for agricultural production improvement. SS was tested on Porto Santo Island (Portugal). The experiment was randomly designed with three 25 m 2 plots for each treatment (2 SS concentr...

Custard apple fruits are sources of carbohydrates, including fibers and pectin, protein, minerals, antioxidants, and other bifunctional compounds with health benefits. Despite those benefits, the custard apple is climacteric fruit with a quick ripening period, extremely perishable, have a short fresh consumption time window. Mainly due to these fea...

The Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change Project set out to improve the diversity, quantity, and accessibility of germplasm collections of crop wild relatives (CWR). Between 2013 and 2018, partners in 25 countries, heirs to the globetrotting legacy of Nikolai Vavilov, undertook seed collecting expeditions targeting CWR of 28 crops of global signi...

Citation: Eastwood, R.J.; Tambam, B.B.; Aboagye, L.M.; Akparov, Z.I.; Aladele, S.E.; Allen, R.; Amri, A.; Anglin, N.L.; Araya, R.; Arrieta-Espinoza, G.; et al. Adapting Agriculture to Climate

The Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change Project set out to improve the diversity, quantity, and accessibility of germplasm collections of crop wild relatives (CWR). Between 2013 and 2018, partners in 25 countries, heirs to the globetrotting legacy of Nikolai Vavilov, undertook seed collecting expeditions targeting CWR of 28 crops of global signi...

It's increasingly important to know the effects of climate change on crops. This study aimed to determine the bioclimatic indices for the main wine-growing areas of Madeira island, for the current period and for two simulated climate scenarios to understand the potential and limits that will be imposed on the development of vine culture. The climat...

Growing conditions of Chlorella vulgaris, a green eukaryotic microalgae permitted in the EU for direct food consumption, were modulated to determine the optimal cultivation conditions to replicate in low-cost photobioreactors to boost productivity. Growth rate (d-1), biomass productivity (mg.L-1 .d-1), harvest cell density (x10 6 cells mL-1) and ce...

The threats to agrobiodiversity ultimately affect our future food security. Countries bonded to national or international biodiversity conservation legislation should conserve and sustainably use their agrobiodiversity. Landraces are a key element of agrobiodiversity which is largely endangered due to lack of their systematic conservation, and part...

Climate change does not happen in the distant future, but it is already present in our daily lives. The increase in temperature and decrease in precipitation volumes has gained prominence, making current and research work as a focus to overcome the constraints imposed by these two elements of the climate. The process of optimizing the use of water...

A agricultura na Madeira remonta ao início do povoamento. O trabalho abnegado dos agricultores, com mais de 600 anos, deu início a um processo de transformação do território, que permitiu o povoamento e a formação da agrodiversidade, com o desenvolvimento das suas várias componentes. A agricultura permitiu produzir o alimento, formar o território,...

O presente caderno de campo foi desenvolvido pelo ISOPlexis - Centro de Agricultura Sustentável e Tecnologia Alimentar da Universidade da Madeira, em parceria com a ACOESTE - Associação da Costa Oeste, com o intuito de auxiliar os agricultores na identificação dos recursos genéticos que têm nas suas explorações, ou dar a conhecer o património genét...

Os problemas ambientais atualmente observados no Mundo mostram que, em regra geral, o modo como a agricultura é praticada não leva em consideração os escassos e tão importantes recursos naturais. Os métodos de cultivo seriam mais sustentáveis se todos aplicassem os princípios de conservação e cuidado pelos recursos, tal como é recomendado na produç...

The lipid and fatty acid profiles of 14 marine macroalgal species from the Madeira Archipelago, including two green (Ulvales and Dasycladales), three red (Corallinales, Bonnemaisoniales, and Ceramiales) and nine brown (Fucales, Dictyotales, and Sphacelariales) species were characterised in order to determine their potential use for animal and human...

This work is integrated into the PHYTOBLUEFRAC project, which is promoted by the company Phytoalgae, Lda in partnership with the University of Madeira, with EEA Grants funding (PT-INNOVATION-0059). The aim of project is the study of microalgae for the development of new food supplements, derived from the lipid fraction, rich in carotenoids, fatty a...

Soil degradation derived from inappropriate, intensive agricultural practices and climatic changes, comes as a great global concern. The long periods of drought and irregular precipitation leads to reduced vegetation, intensified erosion processes and poor soils with high drainage, low organic matter content and water retention. The incorporation o...

Biorefinery is an integrated system that efficiently converts biomass, through physical, chemical, biochemical, and thermochemical procedures into various products. This strategy applied to macroalgae allows to obtain bioactive extracts, bioethanol, lipids, polysaccharides, phycobiliproteins and fertilizers. The usefulness of the bioactive extracts...

The PHYTOBLUEFRAC project is promoted by the company Phytoalgae, Lda in partnership with the University of Madeira for the development of new food supplements derived from the lipid fraction, which originate from the biomass of microalgae, and which have a high nutraceutical capacity capable of preventing and treating certain diseases that affect t...

The use of neglected residues as a fertilizer into agro-systems intensifies the biosustainability and circular economy. In this line of thought, a research strategy was developed to test the potential of solar dehydrated sewage sludge (DSS), produced locally using residues of Porto Santo ETAR as amendment in sweet potato assays. Sewage sludge is a...

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is a staple food worldwide due to its nutritional value, with high protein and minerals content. Traditional agriculture is declining worldwide due to intensive agriculture, with loss of crop biodiversity and nutritional quality. The effect of location and weather events can also affect crop yield and quality, de...

A utilização de Adubos Verdes bem como o uso de Plantas de Cobertura do Solo, vem ganhando cada vez mais espaço na 'Nova Agricultura'. Agricultura essa que tem como objetivo não apenas a produção de produtos agrícolas, mas também leva em conta a 'saúde' do solo, bem como a conservação e preservação da biodiversidade dos agrossistemas. Diversos bene...

Beta vulgaris L. subsp. maritima (L.) Arcang., sea beet, is a morphologically and genetically variable species, belonging to beet primary gene-pool. This crop wild relative is a valuable genetic resource for resistance improvement in beets and could play an important role in crop yield sustainability. Eleven Madeiran sea beet populations were chara...

Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. commonly known as sweet potato, is an important staple food worldwide, mainly due to its high nutritional value and yield. However, vegetative reproduction of sweet potato makes it more susceptible to viral infections, which threatens its productivity, quality, and difficult long-term preservation in germplasm banks. Also,...

Madeira Archipelago is a hotspot for crop wild relatives (CWR) of crop cultures. Some of these CWR are present in very specific environments, such as, in Ponta de São Lourenço or Desertas Islands. One such species is Beta patula Aiton, a Critically Endangered species which belongs to the Gene Pool 1b of cultivated beets. A continuous effort has bee...

Overexploitation of resources makes the reutilization of waste a focal topic of modern society, and the question of the kind of wastes that can be used is continuously raised. Sewage sludge (SS) is derived from the wastewater treatment plants, considered important underused biomass, and can be used as a biofertilizer when properly stabilized due to...

Background Twenty-two native Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) occur in specific dry environments of Madeira Archipelago, like Desembarcadouro islet in Ponta de São Lourenço and Chão islet in Desertas Islands. Nine of them share the same gene pool with crop species included in Annex I of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agri...

The metazoan parasites of four populations of the chub mackerel Scomber japonicus were analysed from two localities in the Atlantic Ocean (Madeira Islands, Portugal, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and two localities in the Pacific Ocean (Callao, Peru, and Antofagasta, Chile), collected during 2002 and 2003. A total of 373 fish specimens were studied a...

Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) and sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) are important food crops worldwide, whose productivity is threatened by climatic constraints, namely drought. Data calibration, validation, and model development of high-precision near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) involving multivariate analyses are needed for the f...

Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) is a staple food and represents an important food security role in most tropical regions. It is, unfortunately, susceptible to prolonged drought conditions. Abscisic acid (ABA) is a well-documented stress-induced phytohormone that tolerant crops usually accumulate in leaves to induce stomatal closure, preventi...

Beta patula Population Assessment hosts information on plant communities in Madeira Island, Portugal. This archive consists of 1786 vegetation descriptions. The data provides information of a 7 year span vegetation census, from 2014 to 2020 in two uninhabited islets where Beta patula occurs covering Coastal Dry Grassland and Shrubland. This work is...

Seaweed beach-casts are a seasonal phenomenon that regularly deposits tons of algae biomass on beaches, which are usually disposed of in landfills. The present work aimed to contribute to the valorization of this biomass by studying bioactivities that reveal its potential in the pharmaceutical and/or cosmeceutical industries. Methanol and ethanol e...

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.), typically cultivated in temperate climates under low inputs, is one of the most important crops worldwide. Abscisic acid (ABA) is an important plant stress‐induced phytohormone. Hitherto, few works analyzed the ABA function in sweet potato tissue growth. Very scarce information is available concerning the ABA role...

Understanding the biochemical and antioxidant composition and capacity of a target biomass is the first step to its selectivity as functional food which can enhance the ability to promote health by reducing the risk of chronic diseases. The main purpose of this work was to employ response surface methodology (RSM) to determine the effect of the ind...

Three macroalgae collected at Madeira Island were included in this study to determine their potential for drug, nutraceutical, food, or supplement application. Fatty acid content was higher in Zonaria tournefortii (12.32 mg g⁻¹ dw) with 16.58% of PUFAs, eicosapentaenoic acid (C20:5ω3), and arachidonic acid (20:4ω6) having concentrations of 2.59 and...

Fifteen attached macroalgae from the Madeira Archipelago, comprising three green, three red and nine brown algal species, as well as two beach-cast macroalgal samples, collected along the north shore of Gran Canaria, were assessed for their biochemical properties. The analysis included the determination of total minerals, total carbohydrates, prote...

A cultura da vinha possuiu uma elevada importância na produção de vinhos de qualidade na Ilha da Madeira. No entanto para que a produção da cultura venha a produzir de maneira mais satisfatória é extremamente necessário o conhecimento dos locais mais propícios para o desenvolvimento da cultura. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi realizar um Zoneam...

PT: A Madeira possui condições agroecológicas únicas, que permitem o desenvolvimento de grande diversidade de espécies frutícolas. A macieira é uma fruteira tradicional na Madeira que se distribui pelas suas freguesias montanhosas, desde o Oeste, Achadas da Cruz, até o Este, Faial. O cultivo da macieira desenvolve-se em pequenos pomares, que alberg...

Agricultural intensification and associated loss of high‐quality habitats are key drivers of insect pollinator declines. With the aim of decreasing the environmental impact of agriculture, the 2014 EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) defined a set of habitat and landscape features (Ecological Focus Areas: EFAs) farmers could select from as a requir...

Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) is a substantial staple food in most of the tropical regions. Prolonged exposure to drought impairs crop production worldwide. Tolerant crops have the best capability to cope and avoid drought, through phenotypic flexibility mechanisms. The water use efficiency (WUE) is well known in taro crops, but very scarc...

BACKGROUND: The presence of insoluble calcium oxalate druse crystals (CaOx) in sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) can negatively affect its nutritional quality. Photosynthesis, starch, and protein composition are linked with oxalate synthesis and tuber quality under water scarcity. Our main objective was the oxalate quantitation of sweet potato tubers...

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) is an important staple food in several regions of the world. Water scarcity is the most devastating abiotic stress, with a great impact on crop productivity, food security, and subsistence. Drought restricts the nutrient intake and transport into the plant. Tolerant crops have morphological mechanisms of dro...

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) is an important crop in the world, cultivated in temperate climates under low inputs. Drought changes the plant biomass allocation, together with the carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition (δ13C and δ15N), whose changes are faintly known in sweet potato crops. Here, we show the biomass allocation of eight sweet p...

This work analyzes the changes undergone by agrodiversity in Santa Cruz. This municipality, in Southern Madeira Island, presents four bioclimatic levels and many agroecological units. The evolution of agrodiversity began with the first human settlement, after the discovery of the Archipelago in 1418. In the first, the biophysical, specific and intr...

Iodine plays an important role in human metabolism and its deficiency is particularly harmful in pregnancy and childhood. It remains a major public health concern in many countries, especially in Portugal. The main purpose of this work was to develop a validated spectrophotometric analysis for a fast and reliable iodine quantification in algal samp...

Fucoxanthin is considered an important marine bioactive compound with biological properties with promising effects, namely on health. A simple and efficient analytical methodology is proposed for its quantification in seaweed biomass by using vortex-assisted solid-liquid microextraction (VASLME) followed by reversed phase high-performance liquid ch...

Madeira Archipelago holds specific maize genetic resources whose populations, representing field diversity, were previously classified into four main landrace groups. The ISOPs 0061 and 0070, with common names of “Milho Sequeiro” and “Milho Branco” yellow and white maize, respectively, represent the ideotypes of two of these landraces. These ideoty...

The understanding of the biochemical and antioxidant composition and capacity of target biomass is the first step to its selectivity as functional food. These can promote health benefits, such as reducing the risk of chronic diseases and enhancing the ability to promote health. The main purpose was to employ Response Surface Methodology (RSM) to de...

Tamus edulis Lowe is an endemic perennial plant belonging to Dioscoreaceae family. The plant has long climbing stems, ovate leaves, flowers in spikes, fleshy red berries and long tuberous roots. Young shoots and tuberous roots of T. edulis were used traditionally for nourishment and as a herbal medicine. Leaves and roots analyzed in the present stu...

Two wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Madeiran landraces were subjected to 100 μM and 200 μM of aluminium (Al) in hydroponic culture, assessing the organic acid exudation role in plant’s responses to this metal. Samples of initial landrace populations (F0), F3 and haplodiploid lines (DH) were evaluated using standard tests: eriochrome cyanine R staining...

Iodine deficiency is one of the three most common nutritional deficiencies worldwide and is a global public health problem that affects particularly the young children, pregnant women and elderly. The consequences of iodine deficiency disorder (IDD) include goiter and cretinism. The traditional consumption of iodine via supplemented salt should be...