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Romic, M.; Mornar, V.; Reljic, M.; Slapnicar, A.; Bagic Babac, M., and Romic, D., 2024. Utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to develop soil health index for salinized coastal agricultural land. In: Phillips, M.R.; Al-Naemi, S., and Duarte, C.M. (eds.), Coastlines under Global Change: Proceedings from the International Coastal Symposium (ICS) 2024 (Doha, Qatar). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 113, pp. 225-229. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. The fertile soils found in delta regions globally are critical for food production, but the increase in sea level and the intrusion of saltwater into aquifers affect the soil health and agricultural sustainability. In the Eastern Adriatic coast in Croatia, particularly in its southern part, the shortage of water, severe droughts, and anomalous weather events in recent decades have become the main constraints on efficient agricultural productivity. The Neretva River delta has been converted to agricultural land through numerous and extensive reclamation projects resulting in the creation of polder-type agricultural land. Generally, the surface-water levels within polder-type land are artificially maintained and controlled by a network of drainage canals, pumping stations, and sluice-gate complexes, which are used to release water into the sea. The potential of AI to assist in developing informed management practices in promoting soil health in agriculture was tested using data of long-term soil and water quality monitoring. A sophisticated sensor system has been developed, providing continuous collection of data on soil and water salinity at hourly intervals, with more frequent updates occurring every ten minutes in select locations. This data is seamlessly transmitted to a centralized database, serving as a robust storage solution for comprehensive data analysis using AI. Through the collection and analysis of data, machine learning models were developed, implemented, and evaluated to identify the most effective model. In addition, ongoing monitoring allows the models to continuously learn and improve over time as new data becomes available. Optimal AI models should help farmers to adjust management practice, particularly irrigation, in accordance with the current soil and water quality condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Naturally-occurring highly-complexed and polymerised organics such as humic acids (HA), due to their large negative charge, play a crucial role in biogeochemistry of trace metals (TM). Toxic (Cd) as well as essential (Zn, Cu, Mn) TM bind strongly to HA, but how these organo-metalic forms influence metal uptake by plants is poorly understood. A solution culture study was conducted to characterize the effects of different concentrations of HA (0–225 mg/L) on the growth and element uptake/distribution in roots, shoots and hypocotyls of radish ( Raphanus sativus L.) exposed to Cd (0.5 mg/L) contamination. After 10-d-exposure to applied treatments, Cd induced phytotoxicity; in contrast, different concentrations of HA had no influence on biomass, but decreased concentration of most TM in examined tissues (Cu by 4.2-fold, Zn by 2.2-fold, Cd by 1.6-fold and Mn by 34%) and their total plant accumulation (Cu by 73%, Cd by 39%, Zn by 29% and Mn by 22%). HA influenced the transport/distribution of TM, decreasing accumulation in roots and increasing their translocation/deposition in shoots, with no effect on TM content in edible hypocotyls. Chemical speciation modelling of the rooting medium confirmed predominance of free metallic forms in the control (no HA) and the pronounced organo-metal complexation in the HA treatments. The results provide evidence of strong capacity of HA to decrease phytoavailability and uptake of Cd, Zn, Cu and Mn while being non-toxic even at relatively high concentration (225 mg/L). Thus, HA, as naturally present soil components, control mobility and phyto-extraction of most TM as well as their phyto-accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vine-growing region of Lumbarda, located in the southeastern part of the island of Korcula, Croatia, has deep sandy soils (paleodunes) associated with the Mediterranean climate and provides optimal conditions for cultivating the autochthonous vine variety Vitis vinifera L. cv. Grk. Unfortunately, recently growers have noted declining yield and quality of grapes resulting from inadequate vineyard management (particularly unsustainable management of soil organic matter) and the occurrence of viral diseases. To revitalize and maintain the vineyards in the Lumbarda region, a detailed study was carried out involving intensive soil survey, analysis of grapevine nutrient status, positive clonal selection, and establishment of new vineyards with virus-free plant material. Preliminary soil survey results provided insight into the extent of variability in major physical and chemical soil characteristics. Based on these results, eight markedly different vineyards were selected for detailed analysis of grapevine nutrients [boron (B), calcium (Ca), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), manganese (Mn), phosphorus (P), and zinc (Zn)] at key development stages to detect potential imbalances that may hamper vine growth and affect its production. Leaf blades and petioles were sampled at midflowering and midveraison stages during the 2007–8 growing season from each of the selected vineyards. The greatest variability in nutrient content between the study sites was recorded for Cu, and considerable variability was also determined for B, Mn, Mg, and P. Differences in fertilization practices are the most common reasons for this variability. The results point to B deficiency in some of the vineyards and suggest potentially toxic levels of Cu in others. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: The assessment of soil contamination and location of pollution sources represent a crucial issue in soil remediation. Topsoil samples were collected in the Zagreb area (Northwest Croatia) and the total contents of trace and major elements were determined. A multivariate geostatistical analysis was used to estimate soil chemical composition variability. Factorial Kriging Analysis (FKA) was used to investigate the scale-dependent correlation structure of some variables by modelling co-regionalization of ten chemical variables, co-kriging specific factors and mapping them. The FKA provided two regionalized factors at different spatial scales of variability: the first factor at shorter range for Zn, Pb, Cd, Cu and Ni indicated different sources of anthropogenic contamination, whereas Ca (mainly loading on the longer range factor) was related to the lithology and parent material composition. The methodology used has proved to be a useful tool to separate geological and anthropogenic causes of variation in soil heavy metal content and to identify common pollution sources. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Human-induced salinization and trace element contamination are widespread and increasing rapidly, but their interactions and environmental consequences are poorly understood. Phytoaccumulation, as the crucial entry pathway for biotoxic Cd into the human foodstuffs, correlates positively with rhizosphere salinity. Hypothesising that organic matter decreases the bioavailable Cd(2+) pool and therefore restricts its phytoextraction, we assessed the effects of four salinity levels (0, 20, 40 and 60 mM NaCl) and three Cd levels (0.3, 5.5 and 10.4 mg kg(-1)) in peat soil on mineral accumulation/distribution as well as vegetative growth and fruit yield parameters of muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) in a greenhouse. Salt stress reduced shoot biomass and fruit production, accompanied by increased Na and Cl and decreased K concentration in above-ground tissues. A 25- and 50-day exposure to salinity increased Cd accumulation in leaves up to 87% and 46%, respectively. Accumulation of Cd in the fruits was up to 43 times lower than in leaves and remained unaltered by salinity. Soil contamination by Cd enhanced its accumulation in muskmelon tissues by an order of magnitude compared with non-contaminated control. In the drainage solution, concentrations of Na and Cl slightly exceeded those in the irrigation solution, whereas Cd concentration in drainage solution was lower by 2-3 orders of magnitude than the total amount added. Chemical speciation and distribution modelling (NICA-Donnan) using Visual MINTEQ showed predominance of dissolved organic ligands in Cd chemisorption and complexation in all treatments; however, an increase in salt addition caused a decrease in organic Cd complexes from 99 to 71%, with free Cd(2+) increasing up to 6% and Cd-chlorocomplexes up to 23%. This work highlights the importance of soil organic reactive surfaces in reducing trace element bioavailability and phytoaccumulation. Chloride salinity increased Cd accumulation in leaves but not in fruit peel and pulp.