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Mechanical soil disturbance is one among the key factors influencing soil biodiversity in agriculture. Although many soil organisms are sensitive to soil disturbance, fungi could be highly impacted due to their sessile lifestyle, relatively slow growth and filamentous body structure. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are of particular interest in arable lands, providing crop plants with numerous vital services such as nutrient acquisition and protection against abiotic and biotic stressors. Considering this, tillage practices that aim to reduce soil disturbance are often seen as a fungal‐friendly alternative to conventional inversion tillage. Although local studies exist on the impacts of minimal tillage practices on AM fungi, the universality of this approach has been debated. Our objective was to assess the effects of reduced tillage intensity on AM fungi in comparison with conventional tillage. Using high‐throughput sequencing techniques in long‐term field experiments in five European countries, we show that the effects of reduced tillage intensity may not necessarily be positive on soil AM fungal diversity. Plots which were tilled using reduced tillage techniques had lower AM fungal richness in three countries, whereas in one of them, no significant differences were found. We also observed a shift in AM fungal communities where prevalence of taxa preferring root colonisation rather than soil exploration increased under reduced tillage regimes. Here, we argue that more detailed and long‐term studies are needed to understand the factors that could make the reduction of soil disturbance more beneficial to AM fungi if agricultural sustainability goals are to be met. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic diversity in crop plants is the conditio sine qua non for sustainable agriculture and long-term food security. Our research carried out the morphological, agronomic, and physico-chemical characterization and resistance to late blight of 35 tomato landraces from seven countries. These landraces have been approved and appear in the Official Catalog of Varieties. The International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) descriptors have been used to describe the tomato's morphological and agronomic characteristics. For the physico-chemical characteristics, the dry matter, the pH, and the carotenoid content (lycopene, lutein, and β-carotene)) were analyzed. Carotenoids were monitored by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results showed that the morphological diversity of landraces was very high. Three landraces of remarkable commercial value have shown increased resistance to late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans, one of the most damaging diseases of tomato. Also, six landraces had a lycopene content exceeding 100 µg/g sample. The carotenoid content ranged between 0.769 (Marmande-FR 166) and 140.328 mg kg−1 FW (Răscruci). The landrace with the highest β carotene content was PT 308 with 65.499 mg kg−1 FW, while the lowest values were registered for Marmande-FR 166 with 0.105 mg kg−1 FW. The present study provides essential information on the morphological and agronomic qualities of these tomato landraces and their lycopene and other carotenoid content. The results are discussed in light of the importance of tomato landraces in meeting the preferences of different producers and consumers, the choice of the most suitable landraces for specific pedoclimatic conditions, and the supply of carotenoid pigment sources for the pharmaceutical industry. Our research responds to humanity's great global challenges: preserving agricultural biodiversity, protecting the environment by identifying pest-resistant varieties, and also protecting consumer health by finding important sources of antioxidants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Farm to Fork" European Union Strategy sets as key strategic objective to reach “at least 25% of the EU`s agricultural land under organic farming and significant increase in organic aquaculture by 2030”. The purpose of this paper is to assess the main ongoing trends of the organic farming in Romania. Statistical data was collected from the official website of the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture by studying the conversion and ecological attestation certificates published by the local certification bodies. In Romania there are 11 inspection and certification bodies that have certified 7,977 producers in 2021, mainly having as main activity the vegetable sector. The results reveal that in Romania around 3% of the land is under organic certification that is far below the above mentioned EU thresholds. In conclusion, Romanian organic agriculture has many farmers who own small plot of land. Although there has been a growing trend of the organic certification over the past few years, the number and area of organic land is largely dependent on the CAP incentives and to a less extent to market opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fertilization, as a key agricultural management strategy, has an important impact on soil processes and fertility. The activity of soil microorganisms can be a useful indicator to understand the belowground interactions and to predict changes in soil processes. The main objective of this study was to assess how the microbial functional diversity from two different soils is changing when different organic and mineral fertilizers are used in a short-term microcosm experiment under controlled conditions. A total of thirty microcosms were installed in a greenhouse using two types of soil (i.e. Luvisol and Phaozem), four fertilizers (i.e. cattle manure, green manure, slurry manure and mineral fertilizer) and one treatment without fertilizers as control. MicroResp multi-SIR method was used to assess the soil microbial functional diversity changes using 15 carbon substrates. The obtained results showed that the soil and the fertilizers had significant impact on the microbial functional diversity. The use of mineral fertilizer lead to lower microbial respiration rates while the use of organic amendments induced higher microbial activity. In addition, principal component analysis presents a clear separation pattern driven by the type of soil and fertilization in the first part of the experiment. The observed dynamics of the microbial community in PCA ordination graphs shows that the effect of fertilizers use decreased in time. This study shows that fertilization drives changes in soil microbial functional diversity, but the soil type is the main factor with higher impact on the microbial communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, fertilizers demands in agricultural fields disturb many essential processes among which soil communities' structures and functions are directly affected. At the basis of all processes in soil stands microbial activity. The entire microbial community is considered the food web controller. Several methods can be applied to measure microbial profile in soil related to their activity. Community respiration rates, biomass dynamics and enzyme activity are commonly used technics to assess functional aspects of soil biologic community. Recently CLPP is widely used for assessing microbial community functional diversity. We hypothesized that community level physiological profile could be influenced by fertilizers (mineral and organic), soil biota (earthworms and collembolans) and soil texture (sandy and loamy). In a greenhouse experiment, 60 microcosms were set up in a 2x2x3 experimental design to observe the pattern of microbial community based on their ability to metabolize a wide range of standardized substrates with a modern profiling technique named MicrorespTM. Correlation analysis showed that the changes in the catabolic profiles of soil microorganisms in both sandy and loamy soil were significant caused by mineral and organic fertilizer applied. In sandy soil earthworms and collembolan presence, together with mineral and organic fertilizers, activates a microbial functional group with the ability to convert α-Ketoglutaric acid. Fructose sugar is representative in catabolic profiles of sandy soil without inoculated biota, independent to the application of fertilizers. Loamy soil treatments promote a microbial biomass, dominant in community structure, capable of metabolizing fructose and malic acid substrate and partly α-Ketoglutaric acid. Based on observed results, application of fertilizers in the presence of soil biota, act to increase the complexity of functional profile. The entire soil communities show a high capacity of turnover due to the application of experimental treatments. Non-rhizospheric experimental setup provides the opportunity to study the overall response of soil community to treatments, even at low values. Mineral fertilizers act toward a reduction of the microbial activity, as an opposite effect visible in organic treated microcosms. Inoculated fauna enhanced a different community level physiological profile, dependent on soil texture - higher in sandy soil. In loamy microcosms it was observed that fertilization produces a powerful constrains on biological community. The most diversified microbial functional profile was observed in soils treated with organic fertilizer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]