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Agriculture plays a fundamental role in ensuring global food security, yet plant diseases remain a significant threat to crop production. Traditional methods to manage plant diseases have been extensively used, but they face significant drawbacks, such as environmental pollution, health risks and pathogen resistance. Similarly, biopesticides are eco-friendly, but are limited by their specificity and stability issues. This has led to the exploration of novel biotechnological approaches, such as the development of synthetic proteins, which aim to mitigate these drawbacks by offering more targeted and sustainable solutions. Similarly, recent advances in genome editing techniques—such as meganucleases (MegNs), zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)—are precise approaches in disease management, but are limited by technical challenges and regulatory concerns. In this realm, nanotechnology has emerged as a promising frontier that offers novel solutions for plant disease management. This review examines the role of nanoparticles (NPs), including organic NPs, inorganic NPs, polymeric NPs and carbon NPs, in enhancing disease resistance and improving pesticide delivery, and gives an overview of the current state of nanotechnology in managing plant diseases, including its advantages, practical applications and obstacles that must be overcome to fully harness its potential. By understanding these aspects, we can better appreciate the transformative impact of nanotechnology on modern agriculture and can develop sustainable and effective strategies to mitigate plant diseases, ensuring enhanced agricultural productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant diseases caused by microbial pathogens pose a severe threat to global food security. Although genetic modifications can improve plant resistance; however, environmentally sustainable strategies are needed to manage plant diseases. Nano-enabled immunomodulation involves using engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) to modulate the innate immune system of plants and enhance their resilience against pathogens. This emerging approach provides unique opportunities through the ability of ENMs to act as nanocarriers for delivering immunomodulatory agents, nanoprobes for monitoring plant immunity, and nanoparticles (NPs) that directly interact with plant cells to trigger immune responses. Recent studies revealed that the application of ENMs as nanoscale agrochemicals can strengthen plant immunity against biotic stress by enhancing systemic resistance pathways, modulating antioxidant defense systems, activating defense-related genetic pathways and reshaping the plantassociated microbiomes. However, key challenges remain in unraveling the complex mechanisms through which ENMs influence plant molecular networks, assessing their long-term environmental impacts, developing biodegradable formulations, and optimizing targeted delivery methods. This review provides a comprehensive investigation of the latest research on nanoenabled immunomodulation strategies, potential mechanisms of action, and highlights future perspectives to overcome existing challenges for sustainable plant disease management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hard-shelled seed industry plays an important role in the global agricultural economy. In fact, only considering hazelnut and walnut, the global nut supply is over 5.6 tons. As a result considerable amounts are produced year by year, burnt or discarded as waste, bypassing a potential source of valuable compounds or features. This review deals with the recent scientific literature on their chemical composition as well as functional applications as an approach to sustain the utilization of the main byproduct derived from industry. Indeed, nutshells have received great interest due to their lignin, antioxidant, physical and mechanical features. It was found that these properties vary among cultivars and localities of plantation, influencing physical and structural features. The inconsistencies regarding the above-mentioned properties of nutshells lead to exploring the status of hazelnut and walnut shell applications in sustainable bio-economy chains. In fact, in terms of potential applications, the state of the art links their use to the construction industry and the manufacture of materials, such as resin or plastic composites, particleboards or construction panels, or vital infrastructure and as a filler in cement pavements. However, their current use continues bypassing their great antioxidant potential and their interesting chemical and mechanical features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the effects of planted forests on soil properties is of great importance to meet increasing demands for wood production and contributing to forest ecosystem services and soil carbon sequestration. However, the influence of mono- and mixed tree plantations on soil chemical properties remains incompletely explained, particularly in tropical semi-evergreen forests. In this study, a monoplantation of Michelia champaca and Tectona grandis, as well as their mixed plantation, were studied on soil variables (pH, SOC, N, P, K) at different depths (0-10, 10-20, and 20-30 cm) in tropical semi-evergreen forest of the Khadimnagar National Park, Bangladesh. All examined pedovariables showed no significant differences among plantation types, notably in the surface soil layer (up to 10 cm). However, significant oscillations were found in the deepest soil layer (20- 30 cm), where M. champaca and mixed-species plantations obtained the lowest SOC (0.55-0.66%) and N (0.05-0.06%) concentrations. In the intermediate soil layer (10-20 cm) K concentrations were the lowest in M. champaca (19.6 mg/kg) and mixed-species plantation (17.6 mg/kg), while T. grandis recorded the highest K concentration (27.4 mg/kg). Additionally, the results indicated an increase in pH with soil depth (from 5.30 in the topsoil to 7.00 in the deepest layer), with T. grandis showing the lowest values across examined soil layers (5.76-5.95) and significantly differing from M. champaca, which exhibited the highest pH over the soil profile (6.29-6.51). Such results suggest the leaching of basic cations (Ca2+, Mg2+, K+ ) over the soil profile due to pronounced monsoon rainfalls. Further research is necessary to fully elucidate underlying mechanisms behind the observed impact of examined plantations on chemical soil variables. Considering other variables such as litter chemical composition and various physical and microbiological soil properties can offer valuable guidelines for enhancing more sustainable management of a tropical semi-evergreen forest, prone to soil acidity and water erosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global climate change is anticipated to have a profound impact on drought occurrences, leading to detrimental consequences for the environment, socioeconomic relations, and ecosystem services. In order to evaluate the extent of drought impact, a comprehensive study was conducted in the Hyderabad–Karnataka region, India. Precipitation data from 31 stations spanning a 50-year period (1967–2017) were analyzed using the standardized precipitation index (SPI) based on gamma distribution. The findings reveal that approximately 15% of the assessed years of experienced drought conditions, with a range of influence between 41% and 76% under SPI_3, and between 43% and 72% under SPI_6. Examining the timescale magnitude frequency provided insights into variations in the severity of drought events across different locations and timescales. Notably, the Ballari (−8.77), Chitapur (−8.22), and Aland (−7.40) regions exhibited the most significant magnitudes of drought events for SPI_3 with a 5-year return period. The heightened risk of recurrent droughts in the study area emphasizes the necessity of integrating SPI in decision-making processes, as such integration can markedly contribute to the development of reliable and sustainable long-term water management strategies at regional and national levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]