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Medicinal and aromatic plants hold a high share of interest in Romania. To offset the harvesting of spontaneous flora and ensure the sustainable conservation of natural resources, the cropping of highly valuable plants of interest represents a priority for the current agricultural system. This study was conducted due to the need for more balance in species exploitation. Therefore, it assessed the emergence dynamics, leaf appearance, growth and development of the plants depending on row spacing and plant distance. The research was conducted at the INCDCSZ Brașov, within the Technology Department, Laboratory of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants. The density of planting is the most important factor. Plants sown in continuous rows showed the highest yields of fresh and dry herbs, especially when the distance between the rows was set to 25 cm. Row-by-row distances of 50 cm ensure average values for all growth and development parameters. An increase in the row-by-row distance up to 70 cm drastically reduced the dry biomass up to 7.89 t ha−1 in continuous rows, followed by a 2 and 2.5 t ha−1 decrease for 15 cm and 25 cm plant-by-plant distances, respectively. Continuous row planting and a 25 cm row-by-row distance negligibly reduce the climate impact on growth and development. Greater spaces between plants leads to an average increase in individual development, but with a decrease in the total potential yield. [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]

Mining industry is one of the most polluting, in particular through the mine tailings and tailing ponds. In Romania, most of these were rehabilitated natural, as is the case at Căpuş.Our studies and research were conducted in 2013 and had two main objectives: to establish natural recovery capacity of the four tailings ponds from the e×ploitation and processing of iron from from Căpuşu Mare (1962-1985), after 28 years from closure, achieving phytocenologic investigations to study the evolution of ecological succession on a lifeless biotope. Genuine identification species installed on the tailings ponds was made by using the dichotomy keys. Quantitative study of characteristics was made by the following indices: coverage using abundance-dominance scale (Braun-Blanquet), calculating the frequency and classification in class presence. For this ecological study of vegetation we used stationary research, with the planimetric method using metric frame 1 square (1 × 1 m). The coverage of vegetation varies from 87% (tailing pond I) to 69% (tailing pond IV). The wood species occupying from 56% (tailing pond I) of the surface of the tailing pond, to 14% (tailing pond IV).Floristic inventory conducted shows that the floristic diversity is at the tailing pond III where were identified, 8 species of trees, 3 species of shrubs and 30 herbaceous species. The lower diversity at the tailings pond I can be e×plained by the high percentage of land cover by wooden species at the e×pense of herbaceous. Phytocenologic results of our investigations show that the tailings ponds from Căpuşu Mare are naturally rehabilitated after 28 years, which is the age of the latest pond. Unfortunately there is no description of the dynamics of these phytocenosis. Although species don't have a great economic value, spontaneous vegetation installed here has the advantage of a positive visual impact, setting ponds, preventing air pollution by drifting the tailings by wind and its transport by rain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of biodiversity conservation was set at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 when the UN adopted the Convention on Biodiversity. Agricultural biodiversity is an essential element of biodiversity. European Union adopted a series of directives in order to reduce genetic erosion which is more and more accented on cultivated plants. Between 2005 and 2010, at USAMV Cluj-Napoca, were undertaken activities for identifying vegetable landraces from 20 counties of Romania, especially from Transylvania, Banat and Bucovina. The seeds were achieved from small seed producers. Speaking about tomatoes, were collected 35 varieties from 7 counties of Transylvania. These varieties were cultivated in field and seeds were produced. For identifying the genuine landraces, these were studied from morphological, physiological and agronomical point of view. For each landrace were studied 80 characteristics and filled in the descriptors developed by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (Rome). It came out that 28 of the 35 varieties were authentic landraces. The paper presents the main characteristics, such as: fruit weight, the dry matter and soluble carbohydrates content, resistance at black fungus and juicy yield. The seeds were given for preservation to Suceava Gene Bank. Each landrace is attended by passport description and characterization. The Gene Bank provides' small quantities of seeds to researchers and vegetable growers. The fact of seed preservation in the Gene Bank ensures' the safety of landraces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microorganisms stand at the basis of every food web in subsurface environments. We report here the presence and abundance of air and soil microorganisms isolated from three caves in Pădurea Craiului Mountains (NW Romania). We determined the density of aerobic heterotrophic bacteria and various microbial physiological groups (i.e. iron reducing bacteria, ammonifying bacteria, denitrifying bacteria and air staphylococci) in air and soil samples obtained from the three caves. The largest density of aerobic heterotrophic bacteria was detected in the atmosphere of Peştera de la Vadu Crişului, a cave most visited by the tourists, and the smallest in that of Peştera cu Apă din Valea Leşului, a cave that is rather inaccessible to regular tourism. The entrance zone of all three caves contained more air microorganisms then the median and profound zone of these caves. Iron-reducing bacteria, ammonifying and denitrifying bacteria were present in the atmosphere of all three caves. No staphylococci were detected in the air of the three caves. The soil microorganisms prevailed in large number in Peştera de la Vadu Crişului, while their smallest density was registered in Peştera cu Apă din Valea Leşului. The ammonifying and denitrifying bacteria dominated the soil microbial community in all three caves. The density of aerobic heterotrophic bacteria was largest in Peştera de la Vadu Crişului, while this cave contained the smallest abundance of iron-reducing bacteria. The largest density of iron-reducing bacteria was instead registered in Peştera cu Apă din Valea Leşului [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preservation of the genetic variability at the crop plants is an important premise for a long durable agriculture. Romania still has an important genetic diversity at the crop plants. Unfortunately in Romania the risk of this diversity disappearance is very big due to the age of the seeds producers and the big surface of unused land. During 2007-2009, at University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (USAMV) from Cluj-Napoca a series of actions for collecting vegetable seeds, for description from agronomical, biological and biochemical point of view of authentic local varieties, for producing and preserving seeds in the Gene Bank of Suceava have been undertaken. Investigations were made in 26 counties of the country but the experimental fields were placed at USAMV Cluj-Napoca. In this work paper are briefly presented the main characteristics of the local varieties of parsley (Petroselinum crispum, subsp. crispum). Among the 64 studied cultivars, 54 (85.7%) proved to be local varieties and among these 5.5% are used for leaves, 20.4% for roots and 74.1% have mixt destinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely accepted that soil tillage induces changes in the structure and functions of the soil microbial community. The practices like minimum tillage have been reported as being beneficial to soil biotic community while conventional tillage is often considered as being detrimental for soil biota. For arable soil it is under question if soil management can drive the diversity of microbial community and related processes. The aim of this study was to assess the changes of the soil microbial functional community (measured as CLPP) under different tillage practices in a network of farms located in the North-Western part of Romania. To do this, we sampled soil in 9 different farms where two kinds of treatments were selected: conventional tillage (ploughing) and minimum tillage (unploughing soil with low-till). Soil samples were taken during spring from fields where wheat was growth. MicroResp multi-SIR approach was used to assess the soil microbial functional diversity. Analyzed soil samples were prepared and loaded into the deep-well plates and incubated for six hours at 25 ºC with the 15 carbon sources (30 mg g-1 soil H2O concentration). The detection plates were read at 570 nm before and after the six hours of incubation.In general, average microbial catabolic rates for all carbon sources were higher in conventional treatments compared with minimum treatments. The carbon utilization pattern was similar for both kind of tillage treatment. The highest respiration rates was recorded for carboxylic acids, followed by carbohydrates, amino sugars and amino acids with some differences for some specific carbon sources. In minimum tillage treatments malic acid, fructose and glucose showed higher respiration values than in conventional tillage while α-ketoglutaric and citric acid registered higher values in conventional treatments. The lower respiration activity was measured for arginine in both tillage treatments. The obtained results suggests that soil tillage can affect the microbial functional diversity as different carbon sources utilization pattern was recorded for both minimum and conventional tillage practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]