Abiotic stresses will be one of the major challenges for worldwide food supply in the near future. Therefore, it is important to understand the physiological mechanisms that mediate plant responses to abiotic stresses. When subjected to UV, salinity or drought stress, plants accumulate specialized metabolites that are often correlated with their ability to cope with the stress. Among them, anthocyanins are the most studied intermediates of the phenylpropanoid pathway. However, their role in plant response to abiotic stresses is still under discussion. To better understand the effects of anthocyanins on plant physiology and morphogenesis, and their implications on drought stress tolerance, we used transgenic tobacco plants (AN1), which over-accumulated anthocyanins in all tissues. AN1 plants showed an altered phenotype in terms of leaf gas exchanges, leaf morphology, anatomy and metabolic profile, which conferred them with a higher drought tolerance compared to the wild-type plants. These results provide important insights for understanding the functional reason for anthocyanin accumulation in plants under stress.

Weeds are a fundamental component of agroecosystems and, if not appropriately managed, can cause severe crop yield losses. New perspectives on weed management are required, because current approaches, such as herbicide application or soil tillage, have significant environmental and agronomic drawbacks. We propose the concept of “neutral weed communities,” which are weed communities that coexist with crops and do not negatively affect crop yield and quality compared with weed-free conditions. Management practices that promote neutral weed communities can enable reduced use of herbicides and soil tillage while enhancing ecosystem services and biodiversity. We report scientific evidence of neutral weed communities and survey ecological explanations for why different weed communities have different effects on crop production. We also propose two weed management approaches for attaining neutral weed communities. The first approach aims to maximize weed biodiversity using traditional approaches such as cropping system diversification and integrated weed management. Higher weed biodiversity is associated with lower dominance of competitive weed species that reduce crop yield. The second approach relies on modern tools such as robots and biotechnology to manipulate the density of specific weed species. This approach can remove highly problematic species and minimize niche overlap between the weeds and crops. Given the complexity of interactions among crops, weeds, and other components of the agroecosystem, we highlight the need for multidisciplinary research to illuminate mechanisms that determine the neutrality of weed communities.

Salinization of agricultural land is an expanding phenomenon, which requires a multi-level strategy to counteract its deleterious effects on crop yield and quality. Plant biostimulants are increasingly used in agriculture with multiple purposes, including protection against abiotic stresses such as drought and salinity. The complex nature of plant biostimulants, however, makes it difficult to establish a cause–effect relationship between the composition of the commercial product and its expected effects. Here, we demonstrate that field applications of two algal derivatives (Rygex, R and Super Fifty, SU) cause a 26% reduction in shoot biomass and a remodulation of the root-to-shoot ratio under moderately saline irrigation (6.3 dS m⁻¹). Moreover, plants treated with the two algal derivatives showed lower leaf water potential and improved water use efficiency under control conditions, suggesting an osmo-priming effect by these two products. These pre-adaptation responses increased tomato yield by 49% (R) and 70% (SU) regardless of the salinity level, with a remarkable reallocation of the biomass toward the fruits. Overall, our results suggest that the application of these two biostimulants can be useful in the open field to protect tomato plants from osmotic stress due to seasonal salinization, a phenomenon that typically occurs in arid and semi-arid environments.

Based on previous experience and attempt, a real-size mosaic Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chamber (MRPC) has been developed within the framework of the CMS muon upgrade efforts. The chamber is a 5-gap with plates made each of 6 pieces of low resistive glass. Cosmic ray test at CERN 904 shows that its efficiency can reach above 95% with a gas mixture of 90% C₂H₂F₄, 5% i-C₄H₁₀ and 5% SF₆. The chamber was also tested with CMS dry gas(95.2% C₂H₂F₄, 4.5% i-C₄H₁₀, 0.3% SF₆) at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++). Efficiency results calculated by a simple tracking method show that the good performance is maintained at rates up to 10 kHz/cm².

Among the agroecological practices that can be used for sustainable weed management, legume living mulches (LLMs) are receiving increasing attention. This study provides a detailed report on how different LLMs established in durum wheat affected the weed community composition and diversity during the fallow period in a wheat–sorghum crop sequence. We hypothesised that differences in the life cycle of the seven legume species used as LLMs, namely perennial, annual self‐seeding and annual species, would result in contrasting soil cover dynamics during the fallow period and, consequently, in distinct effects on weed community composition and diversity. To this end, two complete wheat–sorghum crop sequence cycles were performed. While LLMs did not significantly affect weed community composition during the intercropping with wheat (IC stage), their influence became evident in the post‐intercropping fallow period (post‐IC stage). In both experimental fields, perennial LLMs ( Hedysarum coronarium (L.) B. H. Choi & H. Ohashi, Medicago sativa L. and Trifolium repens L.) and self‐seeding legumes ( Medicago polymorpha L. and Trifolium subterraneum L.) establish consistent ground cover during the post‐IC stage of the wheat–sorghum crop sequence, shifting weed communities towards perennial species dominance. Perennial/biennial weed species such as Plantago lanceolata L., Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers., Beta vulgaris L. and Silene latifolia subsp. alba Poir. thrived due to their underground storage organs, which conferred resilience against LLMs' competition. However, while LLMs hindered most annual weed species, Papaver rhoeas L. responded positively to LLMs, producing larger, more vigorous plants compared to control plots. Results showed that, except for the annual LLMs in the first year, all treatments reported a reduction in weed species richness compared to control conditions in both experimental fields. The lower level of weed species richness under LLMs reflects a high capacity for weed suppression that may have reduced the number of weed species germinating and therefore their richness. However, no effect was found for species' evenness, indicating that none of the weeds became dominant despite the lower species' richness. The role of legume species traits for LLMs are discussed, and it is concluded that the adoption of LLMs within diversified crop rotations, which imply alternating soil disturbance practices, can be recommended to maintain a balanced composition between annual and perennial weed species.