Open Access
Applications of sensing for disease detection
(Springer, 2021) Castro, Ana Isabel de; Pérez Roncal, Claudia; Thomasson, J. Alex; Ehsani, Reza; López Maestresalas, Ainara; Yang, Chenghai; Jarén Ceballos, Carmen; Wang, Tianyi; Cribben, Curtis; Marín Ederra, Diana; Isakeit, Thomas; Urrestarazu Vidart, Jorge; López Molina, Carlos; Wang, Xiwei; Nichols, Robert L.; Santesteban García, Gonzaga; Arazuri Garín, Silvia; Peña, José Manuel; Agronomía, Biotecnología y Alimentación; Agronomia, Bioteknologia eta Elikadura; Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas; Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
The potential loss of world crop production from the effect of pests, including weeds, animal pests, pathogens and viruses has been quantifed as around 40%. In addition to the economic threat, plant diseases could have disastrous consequences for the environment. Accurate and timely disease detection requires the use of rapid and reliable techniques capable of identifying infected plants and providing the tools required to implement precision agriculture strategies. The combination of suitable remote sensing (RS) data and advanced analysis algorithms makes it possible to develop prescription maps for precision disease control. This chapter shows some case studies on the use of remote sensing technology in some of the world’s major crops; namely cotton, avocado and grapevines. In these case studies, RS has been applied to detect disease caused by fungi using different acquisition platforms at different scales, such as leaf-level hyperspectral data and canopy-level remote imagery taken from satellites, manned airplanes or helicopter, and UAVs. The results proved that remote sensing is useful, effcient and effective for identifying cotton root rot zones in cotton felds, laurel wilt-infested avocado trees and escaaffected vines, which would allow farmers to optimize inputs and feld operations, resulting in reduced yield losses and increased profts.
Open Access
Remote sensing for plant water content monitoring: a review
(MDPI, 2021) Quemada Mayoral, Carlos; Pérez Escudero, José Manuel; Gonzalo García, Ramón; Ederra Urzainqui, Íñigo; Santesteban García, Gonzaga; Torres Molina, Nazareth; Iriarte Galarregui, Juan Carlos; Institute of Smart Cities - ISC; Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Applied Biology - IMAB
Las redes sociales se han convertido en una de las principales fuentes de información, especialmente entre los más jóvenes. Al mismo tiempo, se ha incrementado la producción y circulación de información falsa o fake news a través de las redes. En este contexto, resulta crucial que los jóvenes adquieran estrategias y competencias para realizar una lectura crítica de la información que consumen. Este estudio busca analizar el comportamiento del alumnado de secundaria ante la información falsa y el efecto de una intervención didáctica, realizada online durante la pandemia de la covid-19, cuyo objetivo era que el alumnado desarrollara competencias para detectar noticias falsas. Se trata de una investigación participativa con un diseño de pre-test y post-test. Los resultados muestran que el alumnado incrementó su competencia para identificar algunos tipos de falsedad como la información no probada y la información tergiversada, si bien tuvo problemas para reconocer información descontextualizada o el uso de lenguaje discriminatorio. Las estrategias que más utilizó son la comprobación de datos en internet y el uso de verificadores. Se observaron comportamientos diferenciados entre el alumnado que identificó la información falsa y el que no lo hizo. Las conclusiones apuntan a la necesidad de trabajar en el aula de forma integral, extensiva y transversal la evaluación de la información partiendo de las habilidades que el alumnado ya posee.
Open Access
Genetic diversity of Spanish Prunus domestica L. germplasm reveals a complex genetic structure underlying
(Public Library of Science, 2018) Urrestarazu Vidart, Jorge; Errea, Pilar; Miranda Jiménez, Carlos; Santesteban García, Gonzaga; Pina, Ana; Producción Agraria; Nekazaritza Ekoizpena
European plum (Prunus domestica L.) is an ancient domesticated species cultivated in temperate areas worldwide whose genetic structure has been scarcely analyzed to date. In this study, a broad representation of Spanish European plum germplasm collected in Northeastern Spain and a representative set of reference cultivars were compared using nuclear and chloroplast markers. The number of alleles per locus detected with the SSR markers ranged from 8 to 39, with an average of 23.4 alleles, and 8 haplotypes were identified. Bayesian model-based clustering, minimum spanning networks, and the analysis of molecular variance showed the existence of a hierarchical structure. At the first level, two genetic groups were found, one containing 'Reine Claude' type reference cultivars altogether with ca. 25% of local genotypes, and a second one much more diverse. This latter group split in two groups, one containing most (ca. 70%) local genotypes and some old Spanish and French reference cultivars, whereas the other included 24 reference cultivars and only six local genotypes. A third partition level allowed a significant finer delineation into five groups. As a whole, the genetic structure of European plum from Northeastern Spain was shown to be complex and conditioned by a geographical proximity factor. This study not only contributes to genetic conservation and breeding for this species at the national level, but also supports the relevance of undertaking similar tasks of collection and characterization in other unexplored areas. Moreover, this kind of research could lead to future coordinated actions for the examination of the whole European plum diversity, to define conservation strategies, and could be used to better understand the genetic control of traits of horticultural interest through association mapping.
Open Access
Identificación de síntomas previsuales de salinidad mediante imágenes hiperespectrales infrarrojas en vid
(Sociedad Española de Ciencias Hortícolas, 2022) Arazuri Garín, Silvia; Pérez Roncal, Claudia; Jarén Ceballos, Carmen; Santesteban García, Gonzaga; Marín Ederra, Diana; Miranda Jiménez, Carlos; López Maestresalas, Ainara; Agronomía, Biotecnología y Alimentación; Agronomia, Bioteknologia eta Elikadura; Ingeniería; Ingeniaritza; Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Applied Biology - IMAB; Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD
Los niveles altos de salinidad que se pueden producir en un viñedo, asociados generalmente al uso de aguas de baja calidad genera un tipo de estrés abiótico que limita la producción de la uva y afecta a la calidad de los vinos. Teniendo en cuenta la importancia de la monitorización de los cultivos en la toma de decisiones para una buena gestión del viñedo, se plantea como objetivo de este trabajo la identificación previsual de síntomas de estrés abiótico en viña por medio de la tecnología de imágenes hiperespectrales en el infrarrojo cercano (HSI-NIR). Para llevar a cabo este objetivo, se realizó un ensayo en maceta en la Finca de Prácticas de la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Agronómica y Biociencias de la UPNA. El ensayo se realizó con plantas de un año de la variedad Monastrell sobre dos portainjertos 110R y 1103P. Se establecieron dos tratamientos: control (regado con agua de riego no salina) y salinidad (agua de riego con una concentración de sal común de 1,6 g/l). Entre finales de agosto y principios de septiembre se realizaron tres muestreos de hojas, analizando un total de 600 hojas (100 hojas/tratamiento y día). Las imágenes se tomaron con una cámara hiperespectral Xeva 1.7-320-100Hz, con rango espectral 900-1700nm. Una vez procesadas las imágenes se realizó una clasificación mediante un análisis discriminante por mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLS-DA) obteniéndose un porcentaje de muestras correctamente clasificadas en su grupo de origen (control o salinidad) del 82 % el primer día de muestreo, y del 87 % a partir del segundo día. A partir de estos datos podemos concluir que es posible identificar, mediante la tecnología HSI-NIR, síntomas en plantas sometidas a un tratamiento de riego con agua salina antes de que aparezcan síntomas en las hojas.
Open Access
Timing of defoliation affects anthocyanin and sugar decoupling in Grenache variety growing in warm seasons
(Elsevier, 2024) Fernández-Zurbano, Purificación; Santesteban García, Gonzaga; Villa Llop, Ana; Loidi Erviti, Maite; Peñalosa, Carlos; Músquiz, Sergio; Torres Molina, Nazareth; Agronomía, Biotecnología y Alimentación; Agronomia, Bioteknologia eta Elikadura; Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Applied Biology - IMAB; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
Warming trends over the winegrowing regions lead to an advance of grapevine phenology, decreased yield and increased sugar content with a lower polyphenol content. We hypothesized that different leaf removal timings may counteract these effects. A two-year experiment was conducted in La Rioja (Spain) with Vitis vinifera L. cv. Grenache trained in an open-vase system. Trial consisted in a complete block design with two leaf removal treatments differing in the moment of manipulation: i) severe leaf removal treatment conducted after fruit set (ELR); and ii) severe leaf removal at veraison (LLR) compared to an untreated control (Control). Both leaf removal treatments tended to decrease sugar content with no effect on yield, these effects being highly affected by the year. Defoliation accounted for a decreased flavanol and stilbene contents in berries at harvest. An ELR increased anthocyanin and phenolic acid contents at harvest, while warming during 2022 accounted for decreased contents of all the monitored groups of flavonols. ELR was only effective for delaying ripening by means of impairing the sugar:anthocyanin decoupling during the 2021 growing season which was related to lower % of kaempferol. Altogether, results suggested that defoliation should still be applied under currently warming trends in some viticulture regions.
Open Access
Phenotyping xylem connections in grafted plants using X-ray micro-computed tomography
(Wiley, 2024) Camboué, Marilou; Janoueix, Anne; Tandonnet, Jean‐Pascal; Spilmont, Anne‐Sophie; Moisy, Cédric; Mathieu, Guillaume; Cordelières, Fabrice; Teillon, Jérémie; Santesteban García, Gonzaga; Ollat, Nathalie; Cookson, Sarah Jane; Agronomía, Biotecnología y Alimentación; Agronomia, Bioteknologia eta Elikadura
Plants are able to naturally graft or inosculate their trunks, branches and roots together, this mechanism is used by humans to graft together different genotypes for a range of purposes. Grafts are considered successful if functional vascular connections between the two genotypes occur. Various techniques can evaluate xylem connections across the graft interface. However, these methods are generally unable to assess the heterogeneity and three-dimensional (3D) structure of xylem vessel connections. Here we present the use of X-ray micro-computed tomography to characterize the 3D morphology of grafts of grapevine. We show that xylem vessels form between the two plants of natural root and human-made stem grafts. The main novelty of this methodology is that we were able to visualize the 3D network of functional xylem vessels connecting the scion and rootstock in human-made stem grafts thanks to the addition of a contrast agent to the roots and improved image analysis pipelines. In addition, we reveal the presence of extensive diagonal xylem connections between the main axial xylem vessels in 2-year old grapevine stems. In conclusion, we present a method that has the potential to provide new insights into the structure and function of xylem vessels in large tissue samples.
Open Access
Monitoring vineyard canopy management operations using UAV-acquired photogrammetric point clouds
(MDPI, 2020) López Granados, Francisca; Oneka Mugica, Oihane; Marín Ederra, Diana; Loidi Erviti, Maite; Santesteban García, Gonzaga; Agronomía, Biotecnología y Alimentación; Agronomia, Bioteknologia eta Elikadura; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua
Canopy management operations, such as shoot thinning, leaf removal, and shoot trimming, are among the most relevant agricultural practices in viticulture. However, the supervision of these tasks demands a visual inspection of the whole vineyard, which is time-consuming and laborious. The application of photogrammetric techniques to images acquired with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has proved to be an efficient way to measure woody crops canopy. Consequently, the objective of this work was to determine whether the use ofUAV photogrammetry allows the detection of canopy management operations. A UAV equipped with an RGB digital camera was used to acquire images with high overlap over different canopy management experiments in four vineyards with the aim of characterizing vine dimensions before and after shoot thinning, leaf removal, and shoot trimming operations. The images were processed to generate photogrammetric point clouds of every vine that were analyzed using a fully automated object-based image analysis algorithm. Two approaches were tested in the analysis of the UAV derived data: (1) to determine whether the comparison of the vine dimensions before and after the treatments allowed the detection of the canopy management operations; and (2) to study the vine dimensions after the operations and assess the possibility of detecting these operations using only the data from the flight after them. The first approach successfully detected the canopy management. Regarding the second approach, significant differences in the vine dimensions after the treatments were detected in all the experiments, and the vines under the shoot trimming treatment could be easily and accurately detected based on a fixed threshold.
Open Access
Relevance of sink-size estimation for within-field zone delineation in vineyards
(Springer, 2017) Urretavizcaya Sanz, Inés; Royo Díaz, José Bernardo; Miranda Jiménez, Carlos; Tisseyre, B.; Santesteban García, Gonzaga; Producción Agraria; Nekazaritza Ekoizpena; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua, IIM11879.RI.1
Source to sink size ratio, i.e.: the relative abundance of photosynthetically active organs (leaves) with regards to photosynthate demanding organs (mainly bunches), is widely known to be one of the main drivers of grape oenological quality. However, due to the difficulty of remote sink size estimation, Precision Viticulture (PV) has been mainly based on within-field zone delineation using vegetation indices. This approach has given only moderately satisfactory results for discriminating zones with differential quality. The aim of this work was to investigate an approach to delineate within-vineyard quality zones that includes an estimator of sink size in the data-set. The study was carried out during two consecutive seasons on a 4.2 ha gobelet-trained cv. 'Tempranillo' vineyard. Zone delineation was performed using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), soil apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) and bunch number (BN) data. These variables were considered separately, in pairs, or the three altogether, using fuzzy k-means cluster analysis for combinations. The zones delineated based on single variables did not allow a sufficient discrimination for grape composition at harvest, NDVI being the only variable that by itself resulted in zones that to some extent differed in grape composition. On the contrary, when two variables were combined, discrimination in terms of grape composition improved remarkably, provided the sink size estimation variable (BN) was included in the combination. Lastly, the combination of the three variables yielded the best discriminating zoning, improving slightly on those provided by NDVI + BN and ECa + BN combinations. Thus, the relevance of including a variable related to sink size (in this case the number of bunches per plant) has been confirmed, which makes its consideration highly advisable for any PV work aiming at zone delineation for grape quality purposes.
Open Access
Under-vine cover crops: impact on weed development, yield and grape composition
(International Viticulture and Enology Society (IVES), 2020) Abad Zamora, Francisco Javier; Marín Ederra, Diana; Santesteban García, Gonzaga; Cibriain Sabalza, Félix; Sagüés Sarasa, Ana; Agronomía, Biotecnología y Alimentación; Agronomia, Bioteknologia eta Elikadura; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua, 0011-1365-2019-000111
This study aims to evaluate the interest of using an under-vine cover crop as a sustainable management tool replacing herbicides or tillage to control weeds, evaluating its effects on yield and berry parameters in a semi-arid climate. The performance of Trifolium fragiferum as an under-vine cover crop was evaluated in 2018 and 2019 in a Merlot vineyard in Traibuenas (Navarra, Spain). This trial showed that the soil under the vines was covered by 80 % of the cover crop in August 2018 and 100 % in Aug 2019, with clover (T. fragiferum) comprising around 26 % and 70 % of the cover crop surface, respectively. The presence of the cover crop only reduced the number of shoots in the second year, although both years there was an increment in water stress. Neither yield, cluster weight nor berry weight were affected by the presence of the under-vine cover crop. Similarly, no changes in grape composition were observed. The use of T. fragiferum-like cover crops under the vine allows for better control of weeds, provided a good installation is achieved. In the first two years, this cover crop reduced vegetative growth and increased water deficit slightly. However, no changes in yield and grape composition were observed. In a context of herbicide suppression and search for sustainable management, under-vine clover cover crops constitute a viable alternative in semi-arid regions provided drip irrigation can be applied.
Open Access
Intracultivar genetic diversity in grapevine: water use efficiency variability within cv. Grenache
(Wiley, 2021) Buesa, Ignacio; Escalona, José M.; Tortosa, Ignacio; Marín Ederra, Diana; Loidi Erviti, Maite; Santesteban García, Gonzaga; Douthe, Cyril; Medrano, H.; Agronomía, Biotecnología y Alimentación; Agronomia, Bioteknologia eta Elikadura
The selection of genotypes best adapted to environmental conditions has traditionally focused on agronomic and grape composition parameters. However, to classify the genotypes most adapted to climate change conditions, the aim must be to focus on the ecophysiological responses that will ultimately determine their performance. The variability in water use efficiency of 13 Grenache genotypes over three-seasons was assessed under field conditions at leaf, grape and plant level. Results showed a significant effect of genotype at all three levels, and despite the large interannual variability there was a remarkable consistency among levels. Furthermore, using genotype-specific regressions it was possible to identify significant differences in the intrinsic water use efficiency response of each genotype as a function of the vine water status. The relationship between net photosynthesis and stomatal conductance, as well as carbon isotope discrimination in grapes, were also confirmed as reliable physiological indicators for selecting grapevine genotypes to future environmental conditions. Therefore, the proposed multi-level methodology was useful to quantify the intracultivar variability and the identification of more and less efficient genotypes within Grenache.