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The dissemination of knowledge about (agro)biodiversity is a strategic factor in communicating the urgent need to defend and protect biological diversity. Although this can be carried out with various media, in recent years social media (or “Web 2.0”) have begun to assume a prominent role. Of the Web 2.0 services, Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation, San Francisco, CA) is one of the most powerful and interesting tools, for several reasons, being collaborative by nature, free of charge, multilingual, and accessible online; in addition, anyone can update the materials therein. Within the framework of the regional project “Rural Development Programme 2007-2013,” our research group, responsible of the collection of historical information and morphological characterization of several vegetable crops considered to be at risk of genetic erosion, proposed the use of Wikipedia as a dissemination tool. The objective of this study was to show how to add/modify articles in Wikipedia for online divulgation and to demonstrate its validity by analyzing some data (pageviews, editing history, and the impact of Wikipedia as a referral toward the project’s institutional website) related to the Wikipedia articles that were added/modified. The article about the landrace variety Carota di Polignano carrot (Daucus carota), created from scratch, received more than 15,000 pageviews in less than 2 years. Referrals from Wikipedia increased the visits to the institutional website by 30%, whereas the bounce rate decreased by 15%. Wikipedia may be a good tool to improve the dissemination of knowledge about (agro)biodiversity either online or offline, and the addition in Wikipedia’s pages of scientific journal references and of links to projects’ website may strengthen the diffusion of scientific knowledge.

Sustainability of the soilless greenhouse system is under discussion in open cycle systems, where excess nutrient solution (NS) draining from the substrate is released into the environment. Closed growing systems (CGS) lead to the saving of water and fertilizers. The aim of this research was to compare two CGS: nutrient film technique (NFT) and trough-bench technique [Subirrigation (SUB)]. We report the results of yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv. Kabiria) plants. NFT plants were grown with two electrical conductivity (EC) levels (2-4 and 6-8 dS·m^-1) of NS (its highest EC was obtained by increasing all the ions therein). In the SUB system, two water tensions (-4 and –8 kPa) of susbtrate were compared; a NS with an electrical conductivity level of 2 dS·m^-1 was used. The tensions were measured through tensiometers. Tomato plants were transplanted at the fourth to fifth true-leaf stage into pots containing 8 L of perlite for SUB. In both CGS, the plants were placed on steel gullies (slope of 2%). Six clusters per plant were harvested. Total and commercial yield were not influenced by the CGS (on average, 1959 and 1853 g/plant, respectively). The average weight of the fruit was lower in the SUB system's plants (40 vs. 43 g/fruit, respectively, for SUB and NFT). Salinity and water stresses resulted in a reduction of 26% of the yield and 16% of the average weight of fruits. The WUE was higher in SUB than NFT (30.7 vs. 26.0 g·L^-1, respectively). Salinity stress reduced WUE (29.4 v.s 22.6 g·L^-1 with 2–4 and 6–8 dS·m^-1, respectively), whereas water stress did not.

Nutrient solutions (NS) containing moderate to high concentrations of salts are frequently supplied to improve the taste of tomato fruits grown in soilless systems. The aim of this study was to determine whether salinity and water stress affect the tomato fruit quality similarly. The research was conducted in Mola di Bari, Italy, during Autumn 2004, and compared the nutrient film technique (NFT) with the trough-bench technique [Subirrigation (SUB)] in terms of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv. Kabiria) fruit quality. In the NFT, the plants were grown with two electrical conductivity (EC) levels (2–4 and 6–8 dS·m^-1) of NS. The highest EC was obtained by increasing all the ions in the NS. In the SUB system, two water tensions (-4 and -8 kPa) of substrate (perlite) were examinated. At harvest, in each cluster (six/plant), fruit dry matter (DM) and total soluble solids (TSS) were determinated. In the fourth and sixth cluster, vitamin C content and titratable acidity were determined. Total yield was not influenced by either soilless system, while the average weight of the fruit was lower in the SUB. The DM and TTS were influenced by soilless system (on average, 6.6 vs 7.3 g/100 g of fresh matter and 5.3 vs. 5.9 °Brix, with NFT and SUB, respectively). Both of the stresses resulted in the increase of DM and TSS, principally in SUB (water stress) in respect to NFT (salinity stress), while vitamin C and titratable acidity were not influenced by soilless system or water/salinity stress (25.2 mg/100 g fresh matter and 0.45 g/100 mL of citric acid juice, respectively). Results of NFT with the highest EC of NS exceeded 9 dS·m^-1, without any stress symptoms in the plants, while EC in the SUB system remained unchanged (about 2.5 dS·m^-1).

Two greenhouse experiments were carried out to analyze the shoot sodium (Na⁺) partitioning, yield, and fruit quality of ‘Cuore di Bue’, a salt-sensitive heirloom tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), ungrafted or grafted onto interspecific tomato hybrid rootstocks (S. lycopersicum × S. habrochaites) ‘Maxifort’ and ‘Arnold’ in 2009, ‘Arnold’ and ‘Armstrong’ in 2010, grown at different salinity stress (SS) levels (0, 20, and 40 mm of NaCl in 2009; 0 and 20 mm of NaCl in 2010). In both experiments, an interaction was observed between grafting combinations and SS levels in terms of fruit yield, and fruit juice Na⁺ content. Under no SS conditions, plant grafted onto ‘Maxifort’ and ‘Armstrong’ provided the highest yield in 2009 and 2010 experiments, respectively. In the presence of 20 mm of NaCl, plants grafted onto ‘Arnold’ provided a marketable yield 23.5% (on average) higher than plants grafted onto ‘Maxifort’ or ungrafted in 2009 and 33% (on average) higher than plants grafted onto ‘Armstrong’ or ungrafted in 2010. The further increase of SS to 40 mm of NaCl considerably reduced the productivity of all grafting combinations. At 20 mm of NaCl, plants grafted onto ‘Arnold’ showed also a higher capacity to modulate shoot Na⁺ partitioning with respect to ungrafted plants by increasing Na⁺ accumulation in older leaves (52%) and reducing Na⁺ content in younger and most active leaves (24%), thus enabling the maintenance of higher K⁺/Na⁺, Ca²⁺/Na⁺, and Mg²⁺/Na⁺ ratios compared with ungrafted plants. Fruit total soluble solids content, titratable acidity, and dry matter were unaffected by grafting at any SS level, whereas under SS, the fruit juice Na⁺ content of grafted plants was consistently lower (from 19% up to 68%) than that of ungrafted plants. Under moderate SS conditions (20 mm of NaCl), the use of rootstock genotypes such as ‘Arnold’ having a particular ability to reduce Na⁺ accumulation in younger and most active leaves may increase tomato yield and enhance tomato nutritional value by reducing the fruit juice Na⁺ content.

This research was conducted to determine the effect of potassium (K) and cultivar on important quality traits of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), including reducing sugar, titratable acidity, and vitamin E content. Tomato plants were grown in a soilless system. Three K levels (low, middle, and high equal to 150, 300, and 450 mg·L⁻¹ in the nutrient solution, respectively) and three cultivars (SVR, Kabiria, and Esperanza) were compared. Among cultivars, Kabiria, which is characterized by smaller fruits, showed 23% higher total soluble solids (TSS) than the average of the other cultivars. ‘Kabiria’ also showed a total tocopherol (vitamin E) content (18.5 mg·kg⁻¹), markedly higher than SVR and Esperanza cultivars (12.2 and 10.3 mg·kg⁻¹, respectively). Increased K levels in the nutrient solution resulted in increased contents of TSS, reducing sugar contents and titratable acidity in tomato fruits. Also, the vitamin E content of tomato fruits was significantly affected by differing K concentrations in the nutrient solution.