Este artículo muestra las aproximaciones interdisciplinarias que integran conocimientos respecto a los suelos de cementerios contemporáneos y antiguos e inhumaciones clandestinas que producen interés científico bio-geo-arqueológico, forense reciente, lo anterior es lo que compila el estudio de los Necrosoles. Las investigaciones al respecto, plantean interrogantes pedogenéticos, antropogénicos, morfológicos, de características físico-químicas y microbiológicas. Así los Necrosoles se definen con precisión e incluyen en propuestas para sistemas taxonómicos locales y mundiales. Los suelos de los cementerios tienen propiedades físico-químicas y microbiológicas variables, antrópicas, temporalidades e insumos orgánicos e inorgánicos exógenos y predominancia de procesos de cambio ambiental. Actualmente, las necrópolis en las urbes y la proximidad a fuentes de agua e impactos de estos suelos en la salud pública y ambiente, se evalúan en investigaciones científicas. También aumenta el interés por las características de entierros ilegales de cuerpos humanos e integración de herramientas pedológicas y forenses. Revisamos los estudios de Necrosoles y el desarrollo de la investigación científica experimental ligada a efectos e implicaciones de entierros humanos

During the last years Phytophthora infestans sensu lato (Mont. De Bary) has caused epidemics in Colombia in Andean fruit crops such as Solanum quitoense and Solanum betaceum. Establishment of new or modified experimental procedures to study this pathogen is a mandatory subject for scientists. Twelve isolates of Phytophthora spp. obtained from six different Solanum hosts in Colombia were used to evaluate the effect of five different solid media for growth and ability to produce sporangia and liberate zoospores. Determination of the best media culture and optimal growth temperature were necessary to perform measurements and correlate the provenance of isolates with phenotypic traits. Modifications were made to use ingredients available in local markets on the following media: lime bean agar (LBA), Tree tomato or tree tomato agar (TA), carrot agar (AZ), Rye A modified agar and 32% non-clarified V8 agar. Cardinal temperature determination was performed at 10, 15, 20, and 25 °C. Morphometric traits were measured once the optimal media culture and temperature were defined. Correlation analysis showed that there is a relationship between the host and isolate’s preferences for media culture and optimal growth temperature. In addition, the production of characteristic sporangia, sporangiophore and mycelia was related with the media type used and host from which the isolate was collected. In this work useful information was provided to make studies about the biology and development of isolates gathered from cultivated and wild non-traditional hosts.

Plantain and coffee are basic foodstuff of Colombian family standard basket, constituting important sources in the dynamism of the economy of the country. Given the importance of these products, five environmental impacts: global warming, aquatic eutrophication, terrestrial acidification, aquatic ecotoxicity and use of soil were evaluated in three plantain crops associated with coffee in Antioquia Southwest (Colombia), for this purpose RECIPE 2008 method with a cradle to gate approach was used. Surveys and interviews applied to owners and employees of the farms, and to agents related to the production chains were carried out to obtain primary data, secondary data were taken from Ecoinvent 3.1 database. Consumption of resources and emissions were assigned to a functional unit of 1 kg of plantain and 1 kg of dry parchment coffee. Production systems consisted of four stages: establishment/propagation, production, postharvest and distribution. Plantain system generated less impact than coffee, and the stages that contributed the most to the environmental burden on impact categories in both crops were establishment/propagation and production. This is mainly due to the manufacture and the use of fertilizers.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is an essential indicator of soil fertility, health, and carbon sequestration capacity. Its proper management improves soil structure, productivity, and resilience to climate change, making rapid and reliable SOC assessment essential for sustainable agriculture. Visible and near-infrared (Vis–NIR) spectroscopy offers a non-destructive and cost-effective alternative to conventional laboratory analyses, allowing for the simultaneous estimation of multiple soil properties from a single spectrum. This study aimed to predict SOC content using machine learning techniques applied to Vis–NIR spectra of 860 soil samples collected in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. The spectra (400–2500 nm) were acquired using a NIR spectrophotometer, and the soil organic carbon (SOC) content was quantified using a wet oxidation method that employs dichromate in an acidic medium. A hybrid modeling framework combining Random Forest (RF) with support vector regression (SVR) and XGBoost was implemented. Spectral pretreatments (Savitzky–Golay first derivative, MSC, and SNV) were compared, and spectral bands were selected every 10 nm. The 30 most relevant wavelengths were identified using RF importance analysis. Data were divided into training (80%) and test (20%) subsets using stratified random sampling, and five-fold cross-validation was applied for parameter optimization and overfitting control. The RF–XGBoost (R² = 0.86) and RF–SVR (R² = 0.85) models outperformed the individual RF and SVR models (R² < 0.7). The proposed hybrid approach, optimized through features, and advanced spectral preprocessing demonstrate a robust and scalable framework for rapid prediction of SOC and sustainable soil monitoring.

In the tropic, many crops are distributed in the highlands of provinces of the Andean regions at heights of 2,500 m asl and constitute the areas with the highest susceptibility to the frost events occurrence. The study objective was to propose an early frost prediction model based on the relationships between frost events and climatic variables, modeled with machine learning methods. The climatic variables were obtained from thirteen meteorological stations located inside flower crops and distributed in nine municipalities of the Cundinamarca Department. The variables registered were temperature, relative humidity, dew point, photosynthetically active radiation, and precipitation, entered as explanatory variables of frost events. The metrics used for predictive performance evaluation of the five machine learning methods examined were precision, recall, true negative rate, accuracy, and F1 score. The variables’ climatic behavior of previous hours to a frost event are low humidity, wind speed and cloudiness, and high thermal radiation. The fourth of the five trained models performed well due to their classification evaluation metrics, greater than 91%. The cross-validation and statistical analysis demonstrated the higher accuracy of the GBDT model on frost events detection.

Biological control as part of integrated weed management represents an emerging and promising method to minimize the use and impact of herbicides on the environment. The objective of this research was to determine the ecological, phytosanitary, and agronomic status of weeds associated with crops in Antioquia, Colombia, and their potential to be chosen as candidates for biological control studies using pathogenic fungi. The research was carried out through a sampling of weeds in 35 agricultural farms, distributed in 11 municipalities and 10 different crops, on which population ecological variables such as frequency and dominance were evaluated; phytosanitary variables such as incidence and severity of foliar fungal symptoms; as well as some biological and anthropogenic aspects of these, through interviews with the farmers of each farm. The integration of these variables was proposed as an indicator to order and classify the plants according to their greater suitability to be subjected to biocontrol studies. A diversity of 75 weed species was found, with the Poaceae and Asteraceae families standing out, which together represented 43% of the population. 76% of this population presented disease symptoms, presumably of fungal origin, with the severity of up to 10% of the affected leaf area. In 22% of the species agronomic management difficulties greater than 50% were detected on a scale of 1 to 10. We indicate the following twelve weed species as candidates for future biological control studies through phytopathogenic fungi: Rumex crispus L., Digitaria horizontalis (Willd), Persicaria nepalensis (Meisn.) Miyabe, Thunbergia alata Bojer ex Sims, Melinis minutiflora Beauv., Paspalum paniculatum L., Pennisetum clandestinum Hochst. ex Chiov., Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kunth, Sonchus oleraceus L., Erigeron bonariensis L., Bidens pilosa L., and Artemisia absinthium L. This is the first report of its kind in Colombia. El control biológico, como parte del manejo integrado de arvenses, representa un método emergente y prometedor para minimizar el uso y el impacto de los herbicidas en el ambiente. El objetivo de esta investigación fue determinar el estado ecológico, fitosanitario y agronómico de las arvenses asociadas a cultivos en Antioquia, Colombia, y su potencial para ser elegidas candidatas para estudios de control biológico, utilizando hongos fitopatógenos. La investigación se realizó mediante un muestreo de arvenses en 35 fincas agrícolas, distribuidas en 11 municipios y 10 cultivos diferentes, sobre las cuales se evaluaron variables ecológicas poblacionales como frecuencia y dominancia; variables fitosanitarias tales como incidencia y severidad de síntomas fúngicos foliares; así como algunos aspectos biológicos y antrópicos, a través de entrevistas con los agricultores de cada predio agrícola. Se propuso la integración de estas variables como indicador para ordenar y clasificar las plantas según su mayor idoneidad para ser sometidas a estudios de biocontrol. Se encontró una diversidad de 75 especies arvenses, destacándose las familias Poaceae y Asteraceae, quienes representaron en conjunto el 43% de la población. El 76% de esta población presentó síntomas de enfermedad, presuntamente de origen fúngico, con una severidad de hasta el 10% del área foliar afectada. En el 22% de las especies se detectaron dificultades de manejo agronómico superiores al 50% en una escala del 1 al 10. Señalamos las siguientes doce especies arvenses como candidatas para futuros estudios de control biológico a través de hongos fitopatógenos: Rumex crispus L., Digitaria horizontalis (Willd), Persicaria nepalensis (Meisn.) Miyabe, Thunbergia alata Bojer ex Sims, Melinis minutiflora Beauv., Paspalum paniculatum L., Pennisetum clandestinum Hochst. ex Chiov., Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kunth, Sonchus oleraceus L., Erigeron bonariensis L., Bidens pilosa L. y Artemisia absinthium L. Este es el primer informe de este tipo en Colombia.