Olive Tree

In this investigation, we utilize remote sensing data (four Landsat and Spot images were analyzed for a fifteen year period: 1987 - 2002) and a GIS for the quantitative evaluation as well as developing the spatial patterns of erosion and deposition within the Oued Tlata basin (123 km2) located in north-east of Morocco. This contribution's primary objective is to integrate RUSLE's output data into a flow model (sedimentation) to access the net soil erosion and to identify priority areas (zones of high soil loss or deposition) for possible interventions to curtail and ameliorate land degradation. Analysis of these satellite data allowed the identification of six main land cover types (highly degraded lands, cereal (annual) crops fields, mixed farmlands, olive trees, reforested areas, and natural protected forest). After the determination of the areal distribution of each land type for each date, soil losses were estimated through the incorporation of a developed RUSLE (Revis...

Agroforestry systems are a traditional land use practice in Greece. They are widely distributed all over the country and constitute important elements of the rural landscape. They include all three types of systems: silvoarable involving trees and crops grown on arable land, silvopastoral involving trees and pasture/animals grown on forest and arable land and agrosilvopastoral involving trees, crops and grazing animals grown on arable land. Trees may be forest species or cultivated trees grown for fruits, naturally regenerating or planted, evergreen or deciduous; crops may be annual or perennial species; and animals may be sheep, goats, cattle, pigs or chicken. The area covered by these systems is estimated to be more than 3 million hectares or 23% of the whole country. All types of systems deliver a great variety of goods and services and constitute a cultural heritage while the role of trees is crucial in sustaining production and improving the environment in rural areas. Despite their great economic, ecological and cultural importance however traditional agroforestry systems have been degraded over the last few decades due to extensification/intensification processes imposed by socio-economic changes. In this paper, after describing the most prominent traditional agroforestry systems and analysing their economic, ecological and cultural roles, their recent evolution is discussed and recommendations are made for their inventory, conservation and sustainable management.

Abstract1. Spatial distribution patterns of Saissetia oleae (Oliv.) are analysed at the plant level on olive tree in Granada, and biological interpretation is given.2. S. oleae tends to be distributed in colonies as a result of its characteristic mode of reproduction and dispersal: mass deposition of eggs followed by limited mobility of subsequent stages.3. Grouping tendency decreases with the increasing age of the insect, as a consequence of both the action of mortality factors and dispersal during the biological cycle. However, positive values of Iwao's α-parameter all along the cycle indicate that even at a very low density several individuals tend to live together in the same quadrat.4. The value of Iwao's β-parameter may indicate a weak tendency of aggregation in the dispersion pattern of colonies due to the response of the insect, through movements or survival, to the heterogeneous conditions of its habitat.5. The constancy of β during the insect cycle suggests no density dependence of the process of dispersal and the operation of mortality factors.6. Most samples fit the negative binomial distribution.1. Spatial distribution patterns of Saissetia oleae (Oliv.) are analysed at the plant level on olive tree in Granada, and biological interpretation is given.2. S. oleae tends to be distributed in colonies as a result of its characteristic mode of reproduction and dispersal: mass deposition of eggs followed by limited mobility of subsequent stages.3. Grouping tendency decreases with the increasing age of the insect, as a consequence of both the action of mortality factors and dispersal during the biological cycle. However, positive values of Iwao's α-parameter all along the cycle indicate that even at a very low density several individuals tend to live together in the same quadrat.4. The value of Iwao's β-parameter may indicate a weak tendency of aggregation in the dispersion pattern of colonies due to the response of the insect, through movements or survival, to the heterogeneous conditions of its habitat.5. The constancy of β during the insect cycle suggests no density dependence of the process of dispersal and the operation of mortality factors.6. Most samples fit the negative binomial distribution.ZusammenfassungZur räumlichen Verteilung verschiedener Entwicklungsstadien von Saissetia oleae (Oliv.) auf Olivenbäumen in Granada1. In einer Ohvenplantage in Granada wurden räumliche Verteilungsmuster von Saissetia oleae analysiert und unter biologischen Aspekten diskutiert.2. Infolge eines charakteristischen Reproduktions- und Verteilungsverhaltens — massierte Eiablage, gefolgt von einer eingeschränkten Mobilität in den folgenden Entwicklungsstadien — tendiert S. oleae dazu, in Kolonien zu leben.3. Die Tendenz der Kolonie-Bildung nimmt mit zunehmendem Alter infolge von Mortalität und weiterer Verteilung im Laute des Entwieklungszvklus ab. Jedoch zeigen die positiven Werte des Iwao α-Parameters, daß die Individuen während des gesamten Entwicklungszyklus selbst bei sehr geringer Dichte dazu tendieren, im selben Quadrat zu leben.4. Der Wert des Iwao β-Parameters scheint eine schwache Tendenz zur Aggregationsbildung für das Verteilungsmuster der Kolonien anzuzeigen, was auf die Reaktionen des Insekts auf heterogene Habitatbedingungen beruht.5. Die Konstanz des β-Werts während des gesamten Entwicklungszyklus weist darauf hin, daß die Verteilung und die Mortalitätsfaktoren dichteunabhängig sind.6. Die meisten Stichproben entsprachen einer negativen Binomial-Verteilung.Zur räumlichen Verteilung verschiedener Entwicklungsstadien von Saissetia oleae (Oliv.) auf Olivenbäumen in Granada1. In einer Ohvenplantage in Granada wurden räumliche Verteilungsmuster von Saissetia oleae analysiert und unter biologischen Aspekten diskutiert.2. Infolge eines charakteristischen Reproduktions- und Verteilungsverhaltens — massierte Eiablage, gefolgt von einer eingeschränkten Mobilität in den folgenden Entwicklungsstadien — tendiert S. oleae dazu, in Kolonien zu leben.3. Die Tendenz der Kolonie-Bildung nimmt mit zunehmendem Alter infolge von Mortalität und weiterer Verteilung im Laute des Entwieklungszvklus ab. Jedoch zeigen die positiven Werte des Iwao α-Parameters, daß die Individuen während des gesamten Entwicklungszyklus selbst bei sehr geringer Dichte dazu tendieren, im selben Quadrat zu leben.4. Der Wert des Iwao β-Parameters scheint eine schwache Tendenz zur Aggregationsbildung für das Verteilungsmuster der Kolonien anzuzeigen, was auf die Reaktionen des Insekts auf heterogene Habitatbedingungen beruht.5. Die Konstanz des β-Werts während des gesamten Entwicklungszyklus weist darauf hin, daß die Verteilung und die Mortalitätsfaktoren dichteunabhängig sind.6. Die meisten Stichproben entsprachen einer negativen Binomial-Verteilung.

Olive mill technology generates a variety of biomass wastes: olive pits/stones and remaining pomace resultant from olive oil extraction. Solid wastes are also generated during the pruning of olive trees (leaves and small branches). This renewable biomass could be a feasible option in gasification technology. Thermodynamic calculations evaluate the optimum operating parameters of a small scale gasification system. The product gas obtained from the downdraft gasifier has low calorific values: 4.35 MJ kg − 1 for exhausted pomace, and around 5.20 MJ kg − 1 for olive pits and leaves and prunings. The power system provides 70 kW e and 150 kW th with a biomass consumption of 80-85 kg h − 1 . Simulation results show the most important operating parameters are turbine inlet temperature (TIT), pressure ratio (Π) and hot side temperature difference of the heat exchanger (HTHE). High electric efficiency (20%) and overall efficiency (65%) are achievable with such a system.

The effects of NaCl salinity on the growth, ion content and gas exchange of six olive (Olea europaea L.) cultivars (Koroneiki, Mastoidis, Kalamata, Amphissis, Kothreiki and Megaritiki) were studied. The plants were grown in 8.5 l pots containing sand-perlite mixture (1:3) for 5 months and were irrigated with half-strength Hoagland solution containing 0, 25, 50, 100 and 200 mM NaCl. Shoot length was reduced significantly above 25 mM for cvs Koroneiki, Kalamata and Megaritiki and above 50 mM NaCl for the others. Total plant leaf area was reduced significantly above 25 mM NaCl, reaching 85% at 200 mM NaCl for the cvs Mastoidis and Amphissis, due to defoliation. At high salinity the aerial part of the plants was more depressed than the root. The concentration of Na and Cl (% d.w.) was higher in roots than in other parts of the plant (shoots and leaves), and increased with the increase of salinity. In Kalamata, leaf Na and Cl concentration was very low for all salinity treatments. Salt injury symptoms (leaf tip burning) appeared in Koroneiki, Amphissis and Mastoidis at 100 mM NaCl, becoming more severe at 200 mM due to defoliation. The cultivars Kothreiki and Megaritiki at 200 mM NaCl exhibited only a few symptoms, while in Kalamata no any injury was observed. Assimilation rate of CO 2 and stomatal conductance were significantly reduced at high salinity levels in all cultivars. Gas exchange in the leaves was not highly correlated with chloride and sodium contents in all cultivars. Kalamata showed higher resistance to salinity, followed by Megaritiki and Kothreiki. Inferences on the mechanisms of action of salt on olive trees are discussed. #

The olive oil industry generates during the extraction process several solid wastes as olive tree leaves and prunings, exhausted pomace and olive pits. These renewable wastes could be used for power and heat applications. The aim of this paper is to compare the performance of two small-scale CHP systems: a gasification-gas turbine system and an EFGT (externally fired gas turbine system). For this reason, several parameters have been calculated: generated heat and power, electric and overall efficiencies, biomass consumption, exergy efficiency, optimum pressure ratio, etc. These systems provide 30 kW e and about 60kW th . Simulation results show that the electrical and overall efficiencies achieved in EFGT system (19.1% and 59.3%, respectively) are significantly higher than those obtained in the gasification plant (12.3% and 45.4%). The proposed CHP systems have been modeled using Cycle-Tempo Ò software.

Olive (Olea europaea L.) is one of the oldest agricultural tree crops worldwide and is an important source of oil with beneficial properties for human health. This emblematic tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, which has conserved a very wide germplasm estimated in more than 1,200 cultivars, is a diploid species (2n = 2x = 46) that is present in two forms, namely wild (Olea europaea subsp. europaea var. sylvestris) and cultivated (Olea europaea subsp. europaea var. europaea). In spite of its economic and nutritional importance, there are few data about the genetic of olive if compared with other fruit crops. Available molecular data are especially related to the application of molecular markers to the analysis of genetic variability in Olea europaea complex and to develop efficient molecular tools for the olive oil origin traceability. With regard to genomic research, in the last years efforts are made for the identification of expressed sequence tag, with particular interest in those sequences expressed during fruit development and in pollen allergens. Very recently the sequencing of chloroplast genome provided new information on the olive nucleotide sequence, opening the olive genomic era. In this article, we provide an overview of the most relevant results in olive molecular studies. A particular attention was given to DNA markers and their application that constitute the most part of published researches. The first important results in genome analysis were reported.

Photosynthetic gas exchange, vegetative growth, water relations and fluorescence parameters as well as leaf anatomical characteristics were investigated on young plants of two Olea europaea L. cultivars (Chemlali and Zalmati), submitted to contrasting water availability regimes. Twoyear-old olive trees, grown in pots in greenhouse, were not watered for 2 months. Relative growth rate (RGR), leaf water potential (W LW ) and the leaf relative water content (LWC) of the two cultivars decreased with increasing water stress. Zalmati showed higher values of RGR and LWC and lower decreased values of W LW than Chemlali, in response to water deficit, particularly during severe drought stress. Water stress also caused a marked decline on photosynthetic capacity and chlorophyll fluorescence. The net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, the maximal photochemical efficiency of PSII (F v /F m ) and the intrinsic efficiency of open PSII reaction centres (F 0 v /F 0 m ) decreased as drought stress developed. In addition, drought conditions, reduced leaf chlorophyll and carotenoids contents especially at severe water stress. However, Zalmati plants were the less affected when compared with Chemlali. In both cultivars, stomatal control was the major factor affecting photosynthesis under moderate drought stress. At severe drought-stress levels, the non-stomatal component of photosynthesis is inhibited and inactivation of the photosystem II occurs. Leaf anatomical parameters show that drought stress resulted in an increase of the upper epidermis and palisade mesophyll thickness as well as an increase of the stomata and trichomes density. These changes were more characteristic in cv. 'Zalmati'. Zalmati leaves also revealed lower specific leaf area and had higher density of foliar tissue. From the behaviour of Zalmati plants, with a smaller reduction in relative growth rate, net assimilation rate and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, and with a thicker palisade parenchyma, and a higher stomatal and trichome density, we consider this cultivar more droughttolerant than cv. Chemlali and therefore, very promising for cultivation in arid areas.

Reçu le 29 juin 2006 ; accepté après révision le 29 novembre 2006 Disponible sur Internet le 29 décembre 2006 Présenté par Michel Thellier Résumé L'oliveraie tunisienne d'olivier s'étend du nord au sud, témoignant d'une grande richesse. Cependant, cette oléiculture est axée sur deux principaux cultivars : le cultivar Chétoui, dans le Nord, et le cultivar Chemlali, dans le Centre et le Sud du pays. À l'instar des pays du bassin méditerranéen, la Tunisie doit se plier aux exigences agronomiques et technologiques de son oléiculture. Notre étude porte sur la caractérisation pomologique et technologique de quatre cultivars d'olivier, Chétoui, Chemlali, Gerboui et Chaïbi, implantés dans trois milieux différents. Les caractères pomologiques des fruits sont influencés par le patrimoine génétique et par le site géographique. Chaque individu, dans son milieu, exprime différemment ses potentialités génétiques, ce qui se traduit par une importante variabilité intra-variétale. Nous avons noté une importante fluctuation du pourcentage de pulpe de trois individus Chaïbi en fonction de leurs sites géographiques ; il varie de 49,06 à 82,19%. Les trois individus de Gerboui ont montré une variabilité importante du poids moyen du fruit, qui passe de 1,13 à 3,17 g. Des fluctuations de la teneur en huile par rapport à la matière fraîche et à la matière sèche sont notées. La composition en acides gras totaux a connu une variation. Les teneurs en acides oléique et linoléique varient énormément chez les individus Chétoui et Chaïbi dans les trois sites géographiques. Les individus du cultivar Chemlali montrent une variation des teneurs en acides palmitique et palmitoléique. Le deuxième site géographique semble être plus favorable pour les caractéristiques technologiques de tous les cultivars étudiés. Ainsi, chaque individu d'un même cultivar montre des potentialités qui se répercutent sur les caractères pomologiques et technologiques de ses fruits. Pour citer cet article : H. Hannachi et al., C. R. Biologies 330 (2007).

This paper investigates the Willingness to Use (WTU) and Willingness to Pay (WTP) for recycled water in agriculture. We report results from surveys of farmers and consumers on the island of Crete, Greece. Crete is suffering from an increasingly severe water shortage coupled with declining groundwater supplies, therefore the wider use of recycled water is an important policy priority. We have investigated WTU and WTP for two crops with two different levels of water treatment. The mean WTP for 1 cm 3 of recycled water was 0.15€ for the irrigation of both olive trees and tomato crops, namely 55% of the fresh water price. The mean WTP for olive oil produced from olive trees irrigated with recycled water was 2.65€, namely 88% of its current market price. We have found that both attitudinal factors, such as environmental awareness and economic factors, such as freshwater prices and incomes, are significant in explaining the WTU and WTP for recycled water and products produced using it, but that important differences exist between farmers and consumers.

The present diversity of the olive (crop) and oleaster (wild) tree was investigated with nuclear and cytoplasm markers. Patterns of diversity of the wild form inferred eleven ancestral populations in the East and the West of the Mediterranean basin. Patterns of diversity for cultivars are less clear, but we showed that cultivars admixed to nine groups that corresponded to oleaster ancestral populations. We inferred that nine domestication events took place in the olive, but these origins were blurred by gene flow from oleaster and by human displacements. These origins of domestication probably reflected different reasons and uses to domesticate the oleaster. To cite this article: C. Breton et al., C. R. Biologies 332 (2009). Résumé Les origines de domestication pour l'olivier. La diversité actuelle de l'olivier (cultivé) et de l'oléastre (sauvage) a été étudiée avec des marqueurs nucléaires et cytoplasmiques. Les patrons de diversité de la forme sauvage conduisent onze populations ancestrales à l'Est et l'Ouest du bassin méditerranéen. Pour les cultivars, les patrons de diversité sont moins tranchés, mais nous avons montré qu'ils se rattachent à neuf groupes qui correspondent à neuf des onze populations ancestrales d'oléastre. Nous en avons déduit que neuf évènements de domestication différents se sont produits pour conduire à l'olivier actuel, mais les origines sont rendues diffuses du fait de flux de gènes avec l'oléastre et des déplacements des cultivars par l'homme. Ces origines de domestication reflètent probablement diverses motivations et utilisations de l'olivier et de ses produits. Pour citer cet article : C. Breton et al., C. R. Biologies 332 (2009).

The olive tree in Spain can generate large quantities of by-product biomass suitable for gasification. Gasification technologies under development would enable these fuels to be used in gas turbines. Biomass conversion to a clean essentially ash-free form, usually by gasification and purification, is necessary to obtain high efficiency. This paper reports results of detailed full-load performance modelling of cogeneration systems based on gasifier/gas turbine technologies. 

The influence of independent variables in the cooking of wheat straw with ethanol-water mixtures (ethanol concentration, cooking time and temperature) on various properties of the pulp (yield and holocellulose, h-cellulose and lignin contents) was studied with a view to determining the best operating conditions to obtain quality pulp (pulp with high holocellulose and h-cellulose contents and a low lignin content). The results were fitted to a second-order polynomial function using a BMDP system package and a 2 m central composite design. In this way, equations that reproduce yield and the holocellulose and h-cellulose contents with errors less than 3.5% and lignin content with errors less than 15% were derived. Additional equations were obtained that relate dependent variables to the treatment severity parameter, R o and reproduce the experimental yields and holocellulose, h-cellulose and lignin contents with errors less than 10, 4, 4 and 15%, respectively. Obtaining pulp with high holocellulose and h-cellulose contents and a low lignin content, entails using a high temperature (190°C) and ethanol concentration (80%) for a long time period (2 h).

For the early Iron Age Elymian town on Monte Polizzo, inland western Sicily, hulled barley was the dominant cereal, followed by emmer and free-threshing wheat. The dominant legume was Vicia faba. In the contemporary Greek harbour town of Selinunte on the southern coast of western Sicily, free-threshing wheat was dominant, while hulled barley and the legume V. ervilia were subdominant. For Selinunte, an import of cereals from the Elymians is suggested. The investigated area around the agora (marketplace) yielded a processed cereal product and edible fruit as the predominantly consumed plantbased food in Selinunte. Its hinterland most probably provided space for large-scale maintenance of horses and oxen as well as for stock breeding for consumption. At ''House 1'' on Monte Polizzo, the archaeobotanical record matches well with the archaeological interpretation of different rooms used for ritual consumption, everyday life, crop processing and crop storage. During feasts in the style of Greek symposia, grapes and figs were consumed. The Elymians most probably adopted olive cultivation quite late. The charcoal analyses, mainly of roof beams from Monte Polizzo residential contexts, point to a sufficient availability of undisturbed natural climax woodland for timberwork.

An investigation of the estimation of leaf biochemistry in open tree crop canopies using high-spatial hyperspectral remote sensing imagery is presented. Hyperspectral optical indices related to leaf chlorophyll content were used to test different radiative transfer modelling assumptions in open canopies where crown, soil and shadow components were separately targeted using 1 m spatial resolution ROSIS hyperspectral imagery. Methods for scaling-up of hyperspectral single-ratio indices such as R 750 /R 710 and combined indices such as MCARI, TCARI and OSAVI were studied to investigate the effects of scene components on indices calculated from pure crown pixels and from aggregated soil, shadow and crown reflectance. Methods were tested on 1-m resolution hyperspectral ROSIS datasets acquired over two olive groves in southern Spain during the HySens 2002 campaign conducted by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Leaf-level biochemical estimation using 1-m ROSIS data when targeting pure olive tree crowns employed PROSPECT-SAILH radiative transfer simulation. At lower spatial resolution, therefore with significant effects of soil and shadow scene components on the aggregated pixels, a canopy model to account for such scene components had to be used for a more appropriate estimation approach for leaf biochemical concentration. The linked models PROSPECT-SAILH-FLIM improved the estimates of chlorophyll concentration from these open tree canopies, demonstrating that crown-derived relationships between hyperspectral indices and biochemical constituents cannot be readily applied to hyperspectral imagery of lower spatial resolutions due to large soil and shadow effects. Predictive equations built on a MCARI/OSAVI scaled-up index through radiative transfer simulation minimized soil background variations in these open canopies, demonstrating superior performance compared to other single-ratio indices previously shown as good indicators of chlorophyll concentration in closed canopies. The MCARI/OSAVI index was demonstrated to be less affected than TCARI/OSAVI by soil background variations when calculated from the pure crown component even at the typically low LAI orchard and grove canopies. D 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Embodiment of biomass combustion technologies in the Cretan energy system will play an important role and will contribute to the local development. The main biomass fuels of Crete are the agricultural residues olive kernel and olive tree wood. Future applications of these biofuels may create, among others, operational problems related to ash effects. In this regard, the thermal behavior of the ashes during lab-scale fluidized bed combustion tests was examined, in terms of slagging/fouling and agglomeration of bed material. Control methodologies for mitigating ash problems were applied, such as leaching the raw fuels with water and using different mineral additives during combustion. The ashes and the bed material were characterized in terms of mineralogical, chemical and morphological analyses and the slagging/fouling and agglomeration propensities were determined. The results showed that fly ashes were rich in Ca, Si and Fe minerals and contained substantial amounts of alkali, falling within the range of ''certain or probable slagging/fouling''. Leaching of the raw fuels with water resulted in a significant reduction of the problematic elements K, Na, Cl and S in the fly ashes. The use of fuel additives decreased the concentrations of alkali and iron minerals in the fly ashes. With clay additives calcium compounds were enriched in the bottom ash, while with carbonate additives they were enriched in the fly ash. Fuel additives or water leaching reduced the slagging/ fouling potential due to alkali. Under the conditions of the combustion tests, no signs of ash deposition or bed agglomeration were noticed.

The aim of this work was to study the effects of agronomic application of olive mill wastewater (OMW) in a field of olive trees on olive fruit and olive oil quality. Agronomic application of OMW increased significantly the fungal:bacteria ratio, whereas the root colonisation and the photosynthetic rates decreased significantly. Consequently, the oil content expressed as a percentage of dry weight, decreased significantly after agronomic application of OMW. Land spreading of OMW altered the relative proportion of individual olive fruit sugar and decreased significantly the nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) of the fruit. A significant increase was observed in total phenol content of oil after agronomic application of OMW. ␣-Tocopherol content, on the contrary, decreased with OMW application. The fatty acid composition of the oil was not affected by the treatments. To our knowledge, this is the first report of change in the olive fruit and olive oil quality following agronomic application of OMW.

The present diversity of the olive (crop) and oleaster (wild) tree was investigated with nuclear and cytoplasm markers. Patterns of diversity of the wild form inferred eleven ancestral populations in the East and the West of the Mediterranean basin. Patterns of diversity for cultivars are less clear, but we showed that cultivars admixed to nine groups that corresponded to oleaster ancestral populations. We inferred that nine domestication events took place in the olive, but these origins were blurred by gene flow from oleaster and by human displacements. These origins of domestication probably reflected different reasons and uses to domesticate the oleaster. To cite this article: C. Breton et al., C. R. Biologies 332 (2009). Résumé Les origines de domestication pour l'olivier. La diversité actuelle de l'olivier (cultivé) et de l'oléastre (sauvage) a été étudiée avec des marqueurs nucléaires et cytoplasmiques. Les patrons de diversité de la forme sauvage conduisent onze populations ancestrales à l'Est et l'Ouest du bassin méditerranéen. Pour les cultivars, les patrons de diversité sont moins tranchés, mais nous avons montré qu'ils se rattachent à neuf groupes qui correspondent à neuf des onze populations ancestrales d'oléastre. Nous en avons déduit que neuf évènements de domestication différents se sont produits pour conduire à l'olivier actuel, mais les origines sont rendues diffuses du fait de flux de gènes avec l'oléastre et des déplacements des cultivars par l'homme. Ces origines de domestication reflètent probablement diverses motivations et utilisations de l'olivier et de ses produits. Pour citer cet article : C. Breton et al., C. R. Biologies 332 (2009).

Water is the most important environmental constrain determining plant growth and fruit yield of olive tree plantations. Although olive trees are resilient to water-limited conditions of Mediterranean-type agroecosystems, crop yields may respond positively to any additional water up to a limit. A field experiment on olive trees was carried out with the aim to present guidelines for efficient management of irrigation scheduling, based on the relationship between plant water status and optimum fruit yield. These relationships were monitored during 2 years by analysing the influence of deficit irrigation strategies on vegetative development and yield parameters on mature modern-trained olive trees of cvs. Frantoio and Leccino. Treatments were: a non-irrigated control (rainfed) and three treatments that received seasonal water amount equivalent to 33, 66 and 100% of ET C in the period August-September, from the beginning of pit hardening to early fruit veraison. Atmospheric evaporative demand and soil moisture conditions were regularly monitored. Seasonal dynamics of plant water relations varied among treatments, and responded to variations in tree water status, soil moisture conditions and atmospheric evaporative demand. All measurements of tree water status were highly correlated with one another. Differences in yield between treatments indicated that water availability might have affected fruit weight before flowering or during the early stages of fruit growth rather than later in summer season. Results concerning crop yield revealed that irrigation of olive trees from the beginning of pit hardening could be recommended, at least in the experimental conditions of this study and in view of differences between genotypes.

In the conditioning tasks of olive-tree a large amount of a woody residue is generated. Such a residue has been traditionally used as a domestic fuel. In the last decades, however, this kind of use has lost importance and the preparation of activated carbons from olive-tree wood appears as an attractive alternative to valorize this by-product. In this study, the optimization of the chemical activation method with phosphoric acid for the production of activated carbon has been analyzed. The results obtained clearly show that samples prepared at 350 and 400°C exhibit a discrete porous development. On the contrary, when the carbonization temperature increases above 450°C the presence of a well-developed mesoporosity is observed. The mercury intrusion curves indicate that the samples exhibit a noticeably developed mesopore volume as well as a wide variety of mesopores ranging from 40 up to 1100 Å of diameter. If the appropriate conditions are used, it is possible to prepare activated carbons showing tailored properties in terms of micro-or mesoporous texture and surface area.

Plant age and size, seasonal growth patters and crop load, among other factors, have been reported to
decrease the usefulness of trunk diameter variation (TDV) derived indices as water stress indicators in
olive trees. Our hypothesis, however, is that indices derived from TDV records in old, big olive trees are
sensitive enough to detect levels of water stress in trees of orchards under deficit irrigation that, although
severe, are below the threshold for fruit shrivelling. This is of importance for the production of good
quality oils, since fruit shrivelling may affect oil quality. The aim of this work was to assess different TDVderived
indices as water stress indicators in 40-year-old ‘Manzanilla’ olive trees with heavy crop load.
We derived the maximum daily shrinkage (MDS), daily growth (DG) and daily recovery (DR) from TDV
records taken during the 2008 dry season both in well-irrigated FAO trees and in deficit-irrigated RI trees.
Measurements of volumetric soil water content (v), leaf water potential (l), stomatal conductance (gs),
net CO2 assimilation rate (A), water and oil accumulation in the fruits and yield parameters were made
for both treatments. The trunks did not grow during the experimental season, either in the FAO or RI
trees, likely because of the heavy crop load. Therefore, DG was useless as water stress indicator. For MDS
and DR, which were responsive to the increase of the trees’ water stress, we calculated the variability,
quantified by the coefficient of variation (CV), the signal intensity (SI) and the sensitivity (SI/CV) values.
In addition, we derived reference equations for irrigation scheduling from the relationships between
MDS values in the FAO trees and main meteorological variables. Values both of SI-MDS and SI-DR were
steady until September 9, despite of increasing differences in v between treatments from early in the
dry season. The l vs v values showed an outstanding capacity of the RI trees to take up water from the
drying soil, and the l vs gs values showed a near-isohydric behaviour of those deficit-irrigated trees.
These results explain, at least in part, the lack of response of MDS and DR on that period. Both SI-MDS
and SI-DR peaked for the first time on September 9, 16 days before the appearance of fruit shrivelling.
Our results suggest that using TDV-derived indices as water stress indicators for irrigation scheduling in
old olive orchards with medium to low plant densities, i.e. with large root zones, may be useless in case
the irrigation strategy is aimed at keeping the soil close to field capacity. Nevertheless, the MDS and DR
indices may be useful indicators for the avoidance of fruit shrivelling in deficit irrigated olive orchards for
the production of good quality oil. Reliable reference equations for scheduling irrigation with the signal
intensity approach were obtained from the regression of MDS values vs the daily maximum values of
both the air temperature and the vapour pressure deficit of the air.

Leaves of olive trees are an abundant raw material in the Mediterranean basin. They contain large amounts of potentially useful phytochemicals and could play beneficial roles in health care. In the present study, the principal bioactive phenols in olive-leaf extracts (OLEs) have been identified and quantified, and their genotoxic/antigenotoxic, cytotoxic and apoptotic effects have been assessed.

Within a strategic R&D project, since April 2002, membrane filtration, simplified treatments, storage reservoirs and constructed wetlands technologies are under investigation, at field scale, to evaluate their effectiveness for treating municipal effluents to be reused in agriculture. So far, the main results recorded have been the following: membrane filtration -the microbial quality of treated effluents was higher than that of local well-water used for irrigation; simplified treatment -in order to save the agronomic potential of organic matter and nutrients present in urban wastewater, olive trees were irrigated with effluents produced by skipping biological processes and this resulted in a yield increase of 50%; storage reservoirs -TSS, BOD 5 , COD and nutrients concentrations achieved the in force Italian limits for WW agricultural reuse; constructed wetlands -recorded average efficiencies for TSS, BOD 5 , COD, TN and TP removals were 85%, 65%, 75%, 42% and 32% respectively.

Genetic diversity and relationships between local cultivars and wild olive trees from three important Spanish olive-growing regions, Andalusia (South), Catalonia and Valencia (from Eastern Mediterranean Coastal area), were studied by means of eight SSR loci. Distinct allelic composition and heterozygosity levels were found in wild olive populations and cultivars. The observed patterns of genetic variation revealed: a) the independent clustering of Andalusian wild olives in a separate gene pool, b) the belonging of wild populations and most cultivars from Catalonia to another gene pool, c) the joined clustering of Andalusian and a set of Valencian cultivars in a third gene pool, and d) clustering of wild individuals from Valencia to the three different gene pools. These results suggest that wild populations of Andalusia may represent true oleasters, the ones from Catalonia may be feral forms derived from cultivar seed spreading, while the population of Valencia seems to be the most admixed one. The significant differentiation between Andalusian and most Catalonian cultivars is indicating an independent selection of olive cultivars in the two regions. The detection of a certain wild genetic background in some Catalonian and Valencian cultivars and the similarity found between wild and cultivated forms may suggest the use of local wild trees in olive domestication. The proposed scenario for the development of olive cultivars in Andalusia includes an empirical selection of outstanding local wild genotypes followed by various generations of crosses and various replanting campaigns, as well as possible introductions of ancestral cultivars. Therefore, our findings would lead us to support the hypothesis that the current diversity found in Spanish olive cultivars may be regionally differentiated and due to both, autochthonous and allochthonous origin. The information obtained in this work gives insights into the genetic resources of the main olive producing country, demonstrating that wild olive populations and local cultivars both represent potential sources of useful variability for olive breeding programs. ß

For the early Iron Age Elymian town on Monte Polizzo, inland western Sicily, hulled barley was the dominant cereal, followed by emmer and free-threshing wheat. The dominant legume was Vicia faba. In the contemporary Greek harbour town of Selinunte on the southern coast of western Sicily, free-threshing wheat was dominant, while hulled barley and the legume V. ervilia were subdominant. For Selinunte, an import of cereals from the Elymians is suggested. The investigated area around the agora (marketplace) yielded a processed cereal product and edible fruit as the predominantly consumed plantbased food in Selinunte. Its hinterland most probably provided space for large-scale maintenance of horses and oxen as well as for stock breeding for consumption. At ''House 1'' on Monte Polizzo, the archaeobotanical record matches well with the archaeological interpretation of different rooms used for ritual consumption, everyday life, crop processing and crop storage. During feasts in the style of Greek symposia, grapes and figs were consumed. The Elymians most probably adopted olive cultivation quite late. The charcoal analyses, mainly of roof beams from Monte Polizzo residential contexts, point to a sufficient availability of undisturbed natural climax woodland for timberwork.

Soil, olive leaves, and fruits, were sampled from an olive grove 200 ha, irrigated with treated municipal wastewater (TMWW), located at Al-Tafilah wastewater processing plant (WWPP), Jordan. Similar samples were also taken from plants not irrigated with TMWW (Control). The heavy metal and essential nutrients were determined in all samples, and the data were statistically processed. The following were found: Much smaller quantities of heavy metals than essential elements were accumulated in the leaves and fruits, the accumulation being independent of the TMWW heavy metal concentration, suggesting a selective uptake of the metals by the olive plants. Also the elemental interactions, which occurred in the olive fruits, contributed mainly essential nutrients and secondarily heavy metals. The trend of heavy metal transfer from soil to olive fruits, and leaves, was almost the same, showing a consistency of transfer.

It is widely believed that partial root drying (PRD) reduces water losses by transpiration without affecting yield. However, experimental work carried out to date does not always support this hypothesis. In many cases a PRD treatment has been compared to a full irrigated treatment, so doubt remains on whether the observed benefits correspond to the switching of irrigation or just to PRD being a deficit irrigation treatment. In addition, not always a PRD treatment has been found advantageous as compared to a companion regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) treatment. In this work we have compared the response of mature 'Manzanilla' olive trees to a PRD and an RDI treatment in which about 50% of the crop evapotranspiration (ET c ) was supplied daily by localised irrigation. We alternated irrigation in the Section Editor: R. E. Munns

Stomatal behaviour, leaf water status and photosynthetic response in relation to long-term water deficit were investigated in southern Italy on young trees of Olive (Olea europaea) to clarify mechanisms of stomatal control. Trees were subjected to three irrigation treatments, T0, T33 and T66 that received 0, 33 and 66%, respectively, of crop evapotranspiration by a drip irrigation system. The prolonged drought during the summer significantly affected soil and leaf water status and gas exchange. In the unirrigated treatment, the drought decreased volumetric soil water content from 30 to 21%, midday leaf water potential from − 1.5 to −3.4 MPa, relative water content from 84 to 74% and stomatal conductance to water vapour from 0.190 to 0.023 mol m − 2 s − 1 . Similar responses to milder water deficit were observed for the irrigated treatments. Good positive relationships were found between stomatal conductance and both leaf water potential and soil moisture. This indicates that both hydraulic feedback and feed-forward mechanisms could be invoked in the response of stomata to soil drying. In late summer, a significant re-increase in both leaf water potential and relative water content was observed in the absence of significant rainfall. Conversely, stomatal conductance remained at quite a low value as did soil moisture. The disruption of the positive relationship between stomatal conductance and leaf water potential at constant soil moisture clearly indicates that soil or root water status directly affected stomatal conductance, minimising the possibility of a feedback mechanism through leaf water status. Photosynthetic CO 2 assimilation in T0 decreased during the season from 14 to 3.3 mmol m − 2 s − 1 , the minimum value that was found in correspondence with minimum leaf water potential and soil moisture. The response curve of assimilation to intercellular CO 2 partial pressure showed that photosynthetic metabolism was greatly depressed by long-term water deficit, with a reduction of 48% for the slope at low CO 2 and of 67% for photosynthetic assimilation at high CO 2 , and that it played a greater role than stomata in limiting photosynthesis. (P. Giorio) S0098-8472/99/$ -see front matter © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 0 9 8 -8 4 7 2 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 2 3 -4

The olive tree (Olea europaea L.), like many other woody plants, has a long juvenile period in which the plant is not able to produce flowers. Knowledge of the moment when the plant is capable of flowering is important for breeding programs and also for determining the physiological basis for sexual reproductive behavior, but currently the only indicator of that moment is the actual flowering. In many species, the juvenile-to-adult phase shift includes changes in leaf structure known as heteroblasty, that is, varied form of successive leaves on the same plant. Some differences have been observed between juvenile and adult olive leaves, particularly in size and form, but to our knowledge, no complete systematic study has been carried out. In this research, we measured size, morphology and anatomy for juvenile and adult leaves of olive plants grown from seeds. Differences were found in most of the parameters studied, including leaf size, form, mesophyll thickness, layers of palisade parenchyma and quantity of peltate trichomes, which were generally significant but overlapping between the two leaf types. The most consistent and striking difference was the presence of an organized layer of subepidermal cells only in the abaxial mesophyll of adult leaves. This characteristic could be a simple and effective criterion of phase change in the olive tree.

The Emilia region (Northern Italy) is characterised by the occurrence of microclimates that permit olive growing. The presence of the species, albeit sporadic, in these territories for several centuries as a fruit crop is well documented, by both archaeological and written testimony, and by a large number of plants well over a century old, located in particular sites, favourable for growth and development of the tree. Olive genetic diversity was studied using RAPD and SSR techniques, on plants growing in the Emilia territory (Reggio Emilia and Parma provinces). For genotype identification comparisons were made with 8 cultivars, some of which from Central Italy. Screening was obtained analysing patterns produced by 20 RAPD primers and 3 SSR primers, developed by other authors; the primers and we were able to discriminate olive cultivars with a sufficient degree of reliability. The dendrograms obtained from the analysis show the genetic relationship among accessions present in the Parma-Reggio Emilia district. Our results demonstrated the reliability of RAPDs and SSRs to identify all studied olive cultivars and to reveal the degree of their relatedness to each other. The analysis also reveals the presence of an interesting amount of genetic diversity among the studied individuals.

Málaga is a province of Spain where olive-trees are cultivated in a large range of environments, climates and soils. We have developed a reliable and reproducible method to detect RAPD and AP-PCR polymorphisms, using DNA from olive-tree (Olea europaea L.) leaves. Starting from their natural orchards, fifty-six olive-tree cultivars throughout Málaga province, including oil and table olive cultivars, were screened and grouped into 22 varieties. A total of 62 informative polymorphic loci that provide 601 conspicuous bands were enough to differentiate the varieties. Clustering analyses managing 3 different pairwise distances, as well as phylogenetic analyses, led to the same result: olive-trees in Málaga can be divided into three main groups. Group I (90% of certainty) contains wild type and two introduced varieties, group II (83% of certainty) covers some native olive-trees, and group III (58% of certainty) is an heterogeneous cluster that includes varieties originating and cultivated in a number of Andalusian locations. Geographic location seems to be the first responsible of this classification, and morphological traits are needed to justify the group III subclustering. These results are consistent with the hypothesis of autochthonic origin of most olive-tree cultivars, and have been used to support a Label of Origin for the olive oil produced by the varieties included in group II.

The influence of the operating conditions used in the bleaching of olive wood trimmings pulp (viz. hydrogen peroxide concentration and time) on the yield, kappa index and viscosity of the resulting pulp and on strength-related properties of paper sheets was studied to determine the optimal bleaching conditions of this pulp. Hydrogen peroxide bleached pulps at different sequences (oxygen, ozone, chlorine dioxide and alkaline extractions) were compared. Hydrogen peroxide bleaching proved to be suitable for this pulp. Considerable improvements in viscosity were obtained with respect to other bleaching sequences such as oxygen, ozone and chlorine dioxide. Hydrogen peroxide bleaching decreased the kappa index 51.3% less than ozone bleaching, 25.0% less than chlorine dioxide (D) and 6.3% less combined chlorine dioxide-alkaline extraction (DE). To obtain kappa indices 50.9% and 37.9% lower than the index achieved by hydrogen peroxide, oxygen (LaO p ) and ozone (LaO(LaZ)R) sequences respectively were needed. Lower-medium levels of hydrogen peroxide concentrations (1-3%) and high reaction times (210 min) proved to be suitable for bleaching of pulp olive trimming residues. This approach could be used on this residue to produce adequately bleached pulp.

Wild olive trees, namely oleaster, are considered the ancestor of cultivated olive and a unexplored source of genetic variability that might contain important traits of agronomic and biotechnological interest. The longevity and genetic diversity of oleasters may have favoured selection of specific and well adapted rhizosphere microbial populations that can constitute unique reservoirs of microbial antagonists of Verticillium dahliae, the main soilborne fungal pathogen of olive worldwide. The objective of this present study was to determine the structure and diversity of bacterial communities in the rhizosphere and endosphere of oleaster from 11 havens in Cádiz and Córdoba provinces of Andalusia, southern Spain. To carry out the study Plant Soil (2011) 343:329-345

Archaeobotanical analyses were carried out on layers from the site of Piazza Garibaldi in Parma, a town located in the plain of Emilia Romagna, in northern Italy. The layers dated to the 3rde2nd centuries BC, around the time of the foundation of the Roman town, and to the 10the11th centuries AD. According to archaeological data, the site was a sacred area in Roman times, while it was a market square in Mediaeval times. Data from pollen and seeds/fruits were useful for both palaeoenvironmental and palaeoethnobotanical reconstructions, and together with NPPs including parasite remains contributed to add details on the function of the site in the different chronological phases.

We describe a protocol for somatic embryogenesis (SE) induction from an adult wild olive tree (Olea europaea ssp. europaea var. sylvestris. The protocol used confirms for the first time that there is no need to use juvenile or rejuvenated material for SE induction. For SE induction, petiole and leaf (proximal, intermediary and distal zones) explants were grown on Murashige and Skoog (MS) or Olive Medium (OM) media with different combinations of plant growth regulators (PGR): α- naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), Zeatin (Zea), indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), 2-isopentyl adenine (2iP), thidiazuron (TDZ) and 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP). All media had 30 g/l sucrose and 7 g/l agar, and the pH was adjusted to 5.8. Cultures were incubated in the dark and, after 3 months, they were transferred to MS medium without PGR for expression. Petiole explants gave the highest callus production, while for SE induction and expression distal blade leaf and petiole explants gave the highest rates. The best medium for SE induction was MS with 12.25 μM IBA plus 4.56 μM Zea. Histological analyses confirmed the individuality of globular somatic embryos. This is the first report of SE expression in explants without rejuvenation in Olea genus, and opens perspectives for using this strategy in SE protocols both for this wild genotype and for commercial genotypes.