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Shelterbelts proved to be important structures that provide water preservation and wind protection for humans, their activities, and crops but they also promote biodiversity, by providing a diversity of habitats for wildlife, contributing to a natural balance of harmful and useful species, and promoting biological control of pests. Shelterbelts were used since the 17th century, but their extensive use begin in the 19th century, following numerous scientific studies that proved their beneficial effects on soil and environment. As climatic and soil conditions are very specific for different regions, the impact of these factors on plants used to build the shelterbelts must be carefully analyzed prior to shelterbelts installation. The southern and southeastern plains of Romania are the regions most affected by climate change, especially drought. Because the area is outspread, with a very diverse soil cover, classified in different soil classes as cernisols (typical chernozem), luvisols (preluvosol), hydrisols (gleiosol), protisols (alluvial), etc., soil surveys are mandatory. In the present paper we try to highlight the importance of determining the soil suitability for the establishment of shelterbelts, especially for those agricultural lands prone to frequent droughts, as those in steppe areas of the Roman Plain. Soil profiles were opened, and surveys were performed, the soil being characterized morphologically and physico-chemically. For each type of soil, the soils were divided according to the main criteria for grouping the lands according to the forest suitability as: soil volume, soil thickness up to compact rock, skeleton content, texture, compaction, salinization / alkalization, humus content, slope category, surface and depth erosion, landslides, groundwater level, etc. The current study may be a model for the suitability of land in lowland areas frequently affected by drought, with similar physical and geographical conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Romanian Academy owns large areas of agricultural land located in the Bărăgan Plain, more precisely in the counties of Călărași and Ialomița, under the administration of the "Patrimoniu" Foundation (FP). In the context of current climate changes challenges, as global warming and its negative effects, the Romanian Academy acted both by organizing scientific debates, to raise awareness and establish a common action plan, but also by taking direct and effective measures, to be followed as good practice examples. One of these measures is the program for the establishment of a network of shelterbelts on the agricultural lands owned by the Academy. The program is running in the period 2014-2024 and starting with 2017, the planting action was carried out, managing to plant around 155 ha of shelterbelt until 2021, that were maintained accordingly to each location needs, with the appropriate plant protection measures. After five years of experience in carrying out the program of establishing the shelterbelts, viable solutions that can be applied in the future were defined: mechanization of works by using modern planting equipment, as it was the Forest seedlings planting equipment EPF 1, and the Hand Drilling Machine for seedlings replacement; the use of a high quality plant material, as oak seedlings grown in seedling trays for the replacement of the dead plants, achieving very good percentages of rooting), the application of pre-emergent herbicides, which delayed the weeds infestation in newly established plantations and which are reactivated at the first rain, eliminating in some cases the hoeing or mechanical weed control but also the use of foliar fertilizers based on macroelements, amino acids and microelements, which regulate the water stress during the summer period of the seedlings and grant significant annual growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decades made obvious that the life on Earth depends on the health status of our soils. The EU is committed to ensure that land is managed sustainably, and soils are protected or remediated according to their needs. The recently launched EU Green Deal puts soil in the heart of the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies, with important targets to be reached by 2030. Therefore, research on how soil management practices affect the soil quality is required by relevant actors, sectors, and policy fields. The present work presents a comparative study on the changes of physical properties of soils in the southern part of Romania, under two different soil tillage practices: scarification (9 years, at 45 cm depth) and shallow plowing (25 cm) followed by disking. The two soil profiles from Calinesti, Teleorman County and Bucu, Ialomita County, revealed a chromic luvisols (luvisols class) in the Calinesti site and a calcaric fluvisols (protisols class) in the Bucu site. The formation conditions of the two types of soil are quite different in the terms of parental material, climate, vegetation, relief, anthropogenic influence, etc. Following the analysis of the physical properties (bulk density, total porosity, and degree of compaction) of the two soil types, evident differences were found, with implications in the crop yields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important aspects regarding food safety is the heavy metal content of food and agricultural products. Due to the rapid development of different industries and other anthropogenic activities, the environmental contamination suffered an exponential increase. The assessment of the soils and crops heavy metal content is unavoidable nowadays, even mandatory for specific products. Also, it provides important information regarding the characterization of a specific area, of the soils properties variations and allows correlations between different elements and agricultural practices. Our study aims to evaluate some of the most common heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Ni, Co, Zn, Cu, Mo, As and Cr) found in one calcaric alluvial soil from Buzau county used for tomato cultivation in organic farming system. We aimed both to establish the compliance with national and European legislation and determine a correlation between these elements, in the context of using microbial inoculants for crop protections. The soil samples were taken only from the surface layers (0-20 cm depth), from plots planted with Florina 44 tomato variety, microwave digested and the elements were quantified using ICP-MS method. The obtained values showed that the soil content is within the legislation limits and allowed us to illustrate some correlations between different heavy metals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In times when healthy diets and personalized nutrition is one of the EU top-priority, sustainable production systems that both preserve and improve soil qualities and grant the agricultural products nutritional value, must be used at most. In this context, the content of macro and micro-elements both in soil and crop plants plays high importance and should be continuously monitored and used for the benefit of food production chains. Microbial inoculants are one of the many ways to enhance the plant's nutrient uptake capacity and increase crop yield and quality. They participate in the geochemical cycling of micronutrients and increase the available form of primary/major nutrients near plants rhizosphere. Soil organic matter also contributes to the nutrients cycle and maintains soil structure. The present study presents the soil nutrients content (N, K, Ca, Mg, Na, F, Cu, Zn, Mo, Se) in 2019, for an experimental field cultivated with organic tomatoes in Buzău county, Romania and attempts to establish some correlation between these elements. The high throughput ICP-MS analysis gives the total content of those elements, of which a part became available throughout the year and the presence and activity of soil microorganisms may accelerate this availability, which can be further exploited inside the organic or sustainable production systems by farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil characteristics play an important role on agricultural crop production, especially in the organic farming system. Increasing the productive potential of organic agroecosystems in the context of climate change is nowadays possible also using soil treatment with microbial bioinoculants. Microbial bioinoculants have the capacity to enhance nutrient availability, nutrients uptake, support the soil and plant health, by controlling the pest and diseases or enhance the plant defence responses. In 2018, at the Vegetable Research and Development Station Buzau, a soil micromorphology study was performed on an Aluviosol Molic Calcaric, in an organic testing field cultivated with vegetables. Soil samples taken at six different depths were analysed using SEM images. The soil micro and macromorphological characteristics were correlated with the analytical data. The results showed the CaCO3 abundance in soil, while at sub-microscopic level it appears as acicular crystals into the efflorescences coatings. The soil skeleton is well represented, the sandsized mineral grains being abundant. Many skeleton grains (as feldspars and mica flakes) had altered surfaces, being partially covered with secondary decomposed products, whose presence favours the installation of microorganisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]