Sergio Saia

• Professor
• Professor (Associate) at University of Pisa

Relay cropping (RC) is a multiple cropping system that consists in planting a second crop into a standing first crop prior to its harvest allowing two potential harvests per year. RC has potential to address food security and environmental sustainability via spatio-temporal diversification of cropping systems. Key potential benefits of RC include i...

Weed and nutrient management in cropping systems of semi-arid areas is a major constraint to cereal yield. Where the use of herbicides is banned or discouraged, the competitive ability of a crop is crucial to reduce weed growth and diffusion. Genotypic differences in the competitive abilities of crops are an important trait to reduce weeds, especia...

Weeds are often the major biological constraint to growing legume crops successfully, and an understanding of the critical period of weed control (CPWC) is important for developing environmentally sustainable weed management practices to prevent unacceptable yield loss. Therefore, we carried out two field experiments to identify the CPWC for two gr...

Aims To evaluate the productivity and N2 fixation of a range of Mediterranean forage legume species as well as their ability to be grown in mixture with a forage grass, and to verify whether N transfer occurs from the legume to the non-legume component of the mixtures and, if so, to what extent this process is affected by legume species. Methods Se...

Aerial parts of Artemisia arborescens were collected from different sites of the Mediterranean area (south-western Algeria and southern Italy) and the chemical composition of its essential oil (EO) extracted by hydrodistillation was studied by both gas chromatography (GC) equipped with an enantioselective capillary column and GC-mass spectrometry (...

Soil profiling is important for understanding soil evolution in space and time and its ability to deliver ecosystem services. It reflects the soil's physical, chemical, and biological, along with its management history. As a fundamental step in assessing soil health, it helps determine the soil’s potential for the provision of ecosystem services an...

Plants encounter numerous abiotic and biotic stresses throughout their lives, such as drought, low temperature, disease, and salt stress. Of these stresses, salinity is one of the most common abiotic stresses that pose a threat to agricultural production worldwide (Ortas et al., 2021). Salt stress poses a major problem for plant production on the g...

The dairy sheep sector is an important sector in semiarid and arid areas. So far, the environmental impact of sheep milk production in these areas is scarcely known. This study aimed to assess the environmental impact of milk production on three farms that differ in the breed reared, namely Sarda (S), Lacaune (L) and Massese (M), in Tuscany (a Medi...

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and field bean (Vicia faba L. var minor) are often used for forage production in the Mediterranean environment. Their bromatological and productive characteristics are known when cultivated as sole crops, but if grown simultaneously in intercropping, the changes in their morphological and physiological characteristics co...

Biomass and nitrogen (N) accumulation in intercrops for forage production under different fertilizations have seldom been assessed and, more occasionally, have been investigated at different stages. The biomass and N contents of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and field bean (Vicia faba L. var minor) grown as sole crops and intercrops, with five N rate...

Knowledge of the soil organic carbon (SOC) and total soil nitrogen (STN) stocks and their temporal changes are key to establishing sustainable land management and climate change mitigation strategies. For this reason, our study focused on determining the SOC and STN stock dynamics from 1971 to 2019 (48 years) in three layers of two soils in the nor...

Key message Simultaneous improvement for GY and GPC by using GWAS and GBLUP suggested a significant application in durum wheat breeding. Abstract Despite the importance of grain protein concentration (GPC) in determining wheat quality, its negative correlation with grain yield (GY) is still one of the major challenges for breeders. Here, a durum w...

Soil Bulk Density (BD) is an extremely important variable for policy development because it is mandatory for soil nutrient stock computation and can influence soil chemical properties, land-use planning and agronomic management. The 2018 Land Use and Coverage Area frame Survey (LUCAS) saw the unprecedented collection of BD core analysis in a subset...

Information on the resistant starch (RS) of the common bean seed, its concentration and health effects are scarce. RS is a starch fraction partly resistant to the digestive enzymes, thus acting as a food fibre. Through a systematic map of the RS concentration in common bean on scopus and web of science databases, we found 1978 records, of which 108...

Three sexually mature goshawks reared in captivity and imprinted on humans to express reproductive behavior according to the cooperative method were studied for three consecutive breeding seasons to assess the quality of their sperm. The following parameters were analyzed: ejaculate volume and sperm concentration, motility, viability, and morpholog...

European fan palm (Chamaerops humilis L., Arecaceae) is the only native palm in continental Europe, providing ecosystem services hard to obtain from other species. However, its populations are declining in some areas due to both anthropic and related to climate change. Thus, knowledge of genetic variability among natural populations is needed to es...

(1) Background: the production of onion seeds is limited by the competition between seeds and the vegetative organs and by scape lodging. However, information on the effects of plant growth regulation on onion seed production is scarce. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the seed yield components and germination ability of onion seeds as affe...

Legume–cereal mixtures are pivotal in yielding a more balanced forage composition compared to the sole crops, due to the well-adjusted equilibrium of carbohydrate and protein. However, great attention is required in choosing the optimal ratio of the components for the mixtures and other agronomic practices (including N fertilization and stage of ha...

Le figuier de barbarie (Opuntia ficus-indica) est une espèce qui prend de plus en plus d’importance dans les systèmes de culture des régions semi-arides du bassin méditerranéen. Les raquettes sont valorisées dans l’alimentation du bétail et les fruits pour la consommation humaine et dans le domaine cosmétique et pharmaceutique. C’est dans ce contex...

Climate change and global population growth call for urgent recovery of genetic variation from underexploited or unexplored durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum) landraces. Indeed, these untapped genetic resources can be a valuable source of favorable alleles for environmental adaptation and tolerance or resistance to (a)biotic stress. In sout...

It is assumed that arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is established between the roots/rhizoids of ca 70% of all plant species, including some of the most important crops, and specialized soil fungi (Brundrett and Tedersoo, 2018) (ref). The AM fungi provide a direct interconnection between roots and soil as well as between root systems of differ...

Information on spatial and temporal changes in the soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil total nitrogen (STN) stocks are crucial to support sustainable land management strategies. However, such information is scarce mainly for arid and semi-arid regions. The present research aimed to determine SOC and STN stock dynamics with depths during the 1971-201...

Pruning residues can have a high quality as feedstock for energy purposes and are largely available in Europe. However, it is still an untapped resource. Such scarce use is due to the need to optimize their supply chain in term of collection machines and the associate cost of collection. A modular chipper (prototype PC50) for pruning harvest was de...

For the estimation of the soil organic carbon stocks, bulk density (BD) is a fundamental parameter but measured data are usually not available especially when dealing with legacy soil data. It is possible to estimate BD by applying pedotransfer function (PTF). We applied different estimation methods with the aim to define a suitable PTF for BD of a...

Many aspects concerning the role of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in plant nutrient uptake from organic sources remain unclear. Here, we investigated the contribution of AM symbiosis to N and P uptake by durum wheat after the addition of a high C:N biomass to a P-limited soil. Plants were grown in pots in the presence or absence of a multispeci...

Salinity in water and soil is one of the major environmental factors limiting the productivity of agronomic and horticultural crops. In basil (Ocimum basilicum L., Lamiaceae) and other Ocimum species, information on the plant response to mild salinity levels, often induced by the irrigation or fertigation systems, is scarce. In the present work, we...

Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis L.) is an industrial crop-producing seed with high oil concentration characterized by high gamma-linoleic acid. However, limited information is available on its response to the nutrient supply, especially P and K. The aim of this work was to compare the response of Evening Primrose to the application of N, P, and...

Background: Legacy data are unique occasions for estimating soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration changes and spatial variability, but their use showed limitations due to the sampling schemes adopted and improvements may be needed in the analysis methodologies. When SOC changes is estimated with legacy data, the use of soil samples collected in d...

Legacy data are frequently unique sources of data for the estimation of past soil properties. With the rising concerns about greenhouse gases (GHG) emission and soil degradation due to intensive agriculture and climate change effects, soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration might change heavily over time. When SOC changes is estimated with legacy d...

Le discrasie tra evidenze scientifiche, scelte amministrative e percezione popolare La parola “sostenibilità” può assumere diversi significati in funzione dell’ambito di riferimento. In generale, la sostenibilità di un processo è la possibilità di poterlo mantenere senza compromettere le risorse necessarie per le generazioni future. Tale definizio...

The success of the use of wastewater in the irrigation depends on a wealth of factors. These include the amount of solids in the wastewater or its filtrate, the ability of the suspended material to form biofilms, the pressure of the water in the system, the type of filters and emitters, and age of the systems. Digestate from crop biomass and manure...

Soil erosion can present a major threat to agriculture due to loss of soil, nutrients, and organic carbon. Therefore, soil erosion modelling is one of the steps used to plan suitable soil protection measures and detect erosion hotspots. A bibliometric analysis of this topic can reveal research patterns and soil erosion modelling characteristics tha...

To gain a better understanding of the global application of soil erosion prediction models, we comprehensively reviewed relevant peer-reviewed research literature on soil-erosion modelling published between 1994 and 2017. We aimed to identify (i) the processes and models most frequently addressed in the literature, (ii) the regions within which mod...

To gain a better understanding of the global application of soil erosion prediction models, we comprehensively reviewed relevant peer-reviewed research literature on soil-erosion modelling published between 1994 and2017. We aimed to identify (i) the processes and models most frequently addressed in the literature, (ii) the regions within which mode...

Book Description: Anthropogenic activity has clearly altered the N cycle contributing (among other factors) to climate change. This book aims to provide new biotechnological approach representing innovative strategies to solve specific problems related to the imbalance originating in the N cycle. Aspects such as new conceptions in agriculture, wast...

For the estimation of the soil organic carbon stocks, bulk density (BD) is a fundamental parameter but measured data are usually not available especially when dealing with legacy soil data. It is possible to estimate BD by applying pedotransfer function (PTF). We applied different estimation methods with the aim to define a suitable PTF for BD of a...

Soil erosion can present a major threat to agriculture due to loss of soil, nutrients, and organic carbon. Therefore, soil erosion modelling is one of the steps used to plan suitable soil protection measures and detect erosion hotspots. A bibliometric analysis of this topic can reveal research patterns and soil erosion modelling characteristics tha...

Background Legacy data are unique occasions for estimating soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration changes and spatial variability, but their use can pose limitations due to the sampling schemes adopted and improvements may be needed in the analysis methodologies. When SOC changes is estimated with legacy data, the use of soil samples collected in...

Si veda alla pagina 70: Saia S., Schillaci, C., Mariotti, M. (2020). Sostenibilità e Suolo, un connubio indissolubile. In: Sellitto V. M. (ed.), La vita del suolo e il suolo della vita. Pag. 70-73. Al Segno di Fileta Editore, ISBN: 9788832173109

Research Topic in Frontiers in Plant Science: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/14154/arbuscular-mycorrhizal-fungi-the-bridge-between-plants-soils-and-humans ################################################## Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is established between the roots/rhizoids of ca 70% of extant plant species, including some...

The relationship of two geographically and ecologically separated populations of Turraea socotrana Styles and F. White (Meliaceae), a vulnerable and scattered shrub from the island of Socotra (Yemen), was explored using preliminary molecular data. The nuclear ribosomal ITS region was used to screen the level of genetic divergence of T. socotrana fr...

Irrigation with wastewater can strongly contribute to the reduction of water abstraction in agriculture with an especial interest in arid and semiarid areas. However, its use can have drawbacks to both soil and micro-irrigation systems, especially when the total solids in the wastewater are high, such as in digestate liquid fractions (DLF) from pla...

In sustainable agriculture crop residues management should consider the interactions between soil and residue properties which can affect the decomposition and global greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission. Through a laboratory experiment, we investigated the effect of the management (incorporation and surface placement) of wheat and faba bean residues o...

Systematic bibliometric investigations are useful to evaluate and compare the scientific impact of journal papers, book chapters and conference proceedings. Such studies allow the detection of emerging research topics, the analyses of cooperation networks, and the collection of in-depth insights into a specific research topic. In the presented work...

The collection of residues from staple crop may contribute to meet EU regulations in renewable energy production without harming soil quality. At a global scale, chaff may have great potential to be used as a bioenergy source. However, chaff is not usually collected, and its loss can consist of up to one-fifth of the residual biomass harvestable. I...

Folia Hort. 32(1) (2020): 1-9### Cistus crispus (Cistaceae) is a species adapted to arid and semi-arid conditions, and it has ornamental and medicinal uses. In Italy, C. crispus native populations are threatened by the collection due to the low number of individuals in the populations, anthropogenic pressure and the changing environmental condition...

Soil is the largest carbon (C) reservoir in terrestrial ecosystems with twice the amount of atmospheric C and three times the amount in terrestrial vegetation. Carbon related ecosystem services include retention of water and nutrients, promoting soil fertility and productivity and soil resistance to erosion. In addition, changes in the soil C can h...

By selecting for prostrate growth habit of the juvenile phase of the cycle, durum wheat cultivars could be developed with improved competitive ability against weeds, and better soil coverage to reduce the soil water lost by evaporation. A panel of 184 durum wheat (Triticum turgidum subsp. durum) genotypes, previously genotyped with DArT-seq markers...

Soil nutrient cycling in the soil-plant system of crops relies on the effects of the agronomical practices on soil conditions, especially soil microbial population mediating soil Carbon transformation (either mineralization or stabilization), Nitrogen cycle including soil Nitrogen transformation, uptake and return from plants, and Nitrogen losses,...

The ability of plants to take up phosphorus (P) from soil depends on root morphology and root exudates release and can be modulated by beneficial soil microbes. These microbes can solubilize P, affect root elongation and branching, and lead to a higher uptake of P and other nutrients. However, coordination of these mechanisms is unclear, especially...

Modulation of the water availability for the plants can be a sustainable option to reduce agricultural water demand and stimulate the synthesis and accumulation of secondary metabolites. However, information on the reduction of water availability while maintaining yield and functional quality are scarce and fragmentary. Accordingly , this research...

Metabolomics is increasingly being applied in various fields offering a highly informative tool for high-throughput diagnostics. However, in plant sciences, metabolomics is underused, even though plant studies are relatively easy and cheap when compared to those on humans and animals. Despite their importance for human nutrition, cereals, and espec...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a pivotal trait of soil health and its stock has direct implication for climate change. Thus, SOC assessment is a prerequisite to sustain crop and ecosystem productivity, resilience and ecosystem service. Digital soil mapping (DSM) has allowed for various spatial and time scales soil analysis. This permitted the spatial...

Legacy databases provide unique information on soil properties and act as a guide for the setup of monitoring processes. However, their use requires an evaluation of their drawbacks, especially when aiming to model the soil traits by depth. We set up a procedure for the integration and error correction of a soil legacy database. This database consi...

Abstract A general feature of soil health is the sustainment of soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration and its stock. Digital soil mapping (DSM) development allowed for the implementation of soil properties mapping at various spatial and time scales. However, many of these studies were made in temperate or cold environments from central and northe...

Poysean (Euphorbia × lomi Rauh) is a natural hybrid of E. milii Des Moulins × E. lophogona Lamarck. This hybrid has a high tolerance to drought and high temperature and the ability to withstand long periods in the complete absence of water. In its native environment, Madagascar, it colonizes wide arid areas and this occurs both due to its stress to...

Poysean (Euphorbia ×lomi Rauh, a spurge natural hybrid of E. milii Des Moulins × E. lophogona Lamarck) is widely grown in south-eastern Asian countries, where winter minimum temperatures are above 20°C. Poysean was recently proposed for indoor uses in Mediterranean countries thanks to its great size inflorescences and long-lasting flowering. In add...

Weed competition is a major constrain in both organic and non-organic cropping systems. Previous reports on wheat showed that the crop competitive ability against weeds can strongly be improved by a proper management of the plant spatial arrangement. In grain legumes, weed management is frequently achieved by delaying sowing time, which however red...

The amount of weeds and the composition of its population can influence wheat grain yield and its quality, especially in organic farming systems, and have implication for the management of the system in space and time. Thus, knowing the weed flora traits with precise and on time reading are important factors for agronomic management both in convent...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) estimation is crucial to manage natural and anthropic ecosystems. Many modeling procedures have been tested in the literature, however, most of them do not provide information on predictors' behavior at specific sub-domains of the SOC stock. Here, we implement Quantile Regression (QR) to spatially predict the SOC stock and...

Problem: Weed competition is a crucial aspect in organic farming sys-tems, especially for predominantly annual crops such as ce-reals and legumes. Sowing density and the spatial arrange-ment of plants play a crucial role in weed control. ***************************************************************************************** Solution: The seeder p...

ITA: Nel presente studio sono stati valutati gli effetti di 4 fattori chiave del processo di panificazione (varietà, tecnica di macinazione, agente lievitante e modalità di cottura) sulle proprietà chimico-fisiche, organolettiche e sensoriali dei pani prodotti da frumento duro. La tecnica di macinazione (a pietra vs. a cilindri) ha esercitato l’imp...

Resumen (ESP): Los hongos micorrícico arbusculares (AMF, en inglés) son hongos promotores vegetales que viven a la vez fuera y dentro de la raíz, por lo que comunican de forma directa el suelo con el interior de la planta. La simbiosis entre planta y AMF tiene muchos beneficios para ambos organismos. Para la planta, el mayor beneficio es sin duda u...

SOC is the most important indicator of soil fertility and monitoring its space-time changes is a prerequisite to establish strategies to reduce soil loss and preserve its quality. Here we modelled the topsoil (0–0.3 m) SOC concentration of the cultivated area of Sicily in 1993 and 2008. Sicily is an extremely variable region with a high number of e...

Smell and aroma are important determinants of consumer acceptance, so gaining deeper insight into bread smell and aroma perception is a research goal. Sixteen combinations of four variables were investigated, to evaluate the contributions of bread chemical and rheological properties and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) towards sensory acceptabilit...

XX CONVEGNO NAZIONALE DELL'ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA DI AGROMETEOROLOGIA (AIAM) XLVI CONVEGNO NAZIONALE DELLA SOCIETÀ ITALIANA DI AGRONOMIA (SIA)

Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) estimation is crucial to manage both natural and anthropic ecosystems and has recently been put under the magnifying glass after the Paris agreement 2016 due to its relationship with greenhouse gas. Statistical applications have dominated the SOC stock mapping at regional scale so far. However, the community has hardly eve...

Management of plant residues plays an important role in maintaining soil quality and nutrient availability for plants and microbes. However, there is considerable uncertainty regarding the factors controlling residue decomposition and their effects on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the soil. This uncertainty is created both by the complexity o...

St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) is a perennial herb able to produce water-soluble active ingredients (a.i.), mostly in flowers, with a wide range of medicinal and biotechnological uses. However, information about the ability of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to affect its biomass accumulation, flower production and concentration of a.i....

Management of plant residues plays an important role in maintaining soil quality and nutrient availability for plants and microbes. However, there is considerable uncertainty regarding the factors controlling residue decomposition and their effects on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the soil. This uncertainty is created both by the complexity o...

Drylands cover nearly of the half of the world and are inhabited by ca. 40 % of the world’s population. Such lands harbour a variety of soils whose net primary and agricultural production is limited by water scarcity and high temperatures in the area, and other soil-specific traits, including actual and potential soil erosion. In such conditions, p...

Efficient modelling methods to assess soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks have a pivotal importance as inputs for global carbon cycle studies and decision-making processes. However, laboratory analyses of SOC field samples are costly and time consuming. Global-scale estimates of SOC were recently made according to categorical variables, including land...

cardine per il controllo delle infestanti nei sistemi cerealicoli di tipo conven-zionale mentre, nei sistemi biologici, l'incremento della dose di semina, il ricorso alla falsa semina e l'impiego di varietà antiche a taglia alta rappre-sentano le pratiche comunemente uti-lizzate. Inoltre, in conseguenza delle diretti-ve comunitarie in materia di us...