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In almond, late frost is the main factor determining the viability of the culture in cold areas, and late flowering remains the key factor in addressing this issue. Climate change is causing an increase in the frequency of extreme weather events. In 2021, the cold period in Spain after the Filomena storm (11–14 January), in which temperatures reached −20 °C in some regions, was a clear expression in this regard. In many almond-growing areas, these low temperatures affected the closed flower buds of most of the cultivars, except for the extra-late and ultra-late cultivars and despite the early stage of development of the buds, leading crop failure. In this work, we show that early extreme frost only affected the extra-early, early and late almond cultivars that had overcome their endodormancy and fulfilled 40%, 31% and 23% of their heat requirements for flowering. Extra-late (with only 2% of their heat requirements covered) and ultra-late (still in endodormancy) cultivars were not damaged. These results show the importance of cultivating extra- and ultra-late almond flowering cultivars to avoid not only the late frost but also the early frost during the very early development of the flower buds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stone fruit production has enormous economic importance in Spain. Cultivation locations for these fruit species (i.e., peach, apricot, plum, and sweet cherry) cover wide and climatically diverse geographical areas within the country. Climate change is already producing an increase in average temperatures with special intensity in certain areas like the Mediterranean ones. These changes lead to a decrease in the accumulated chill, which can have a profound impact on the phenology of Prunus species like stone fruits due to, e.g., difficulties to cover the chilling requirements to break endodormancy, the occurrence of late frost events, or abnormal early high temperatures. All these factors can severely affect fruit production and quality and therefore provoke very negative consequences from the socio-economic point of view in the incumbent regions. Thus, characterization of current cultivation areas in terms of agroclimatic variables (e.g., chill and heat accumulation and probabilities of frost and early abnormal heat events), based on data from 270 weather stations for the past 20 years, is carried out in this work to produce an informative picture of the current situation. Besides, future climatic projections from different global climate models (data retrieved from the Meteorological State Agency of Spain—AEMET) up to 2065 for two Representative Concentration Pathway scenarios (i.e., RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) are also analyzed. Using the current situation as a baseline and considering the future scenarios, information on the current and future adaptive suitability of the different species/cultivars to the different growing areas can be inferred. This information could be the basis of a decision support tool to help the different stakeholders to take optimal decisions regarding current and future stone fruit or other temperate species cultivation in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts a novel optimism bias approach to improve the understanding of media effects on environmental activism. The main research question here concerns if and how optimism bias moderates media type associations with environmental activism. The data came from personal surveys conducted with a sample of 592 adults living in southeastern Spain. The results of hierarchical regression showed the differential perceived type of media influence on self for self-reported environmental activism; the Internet and print media were most associated with personal action, followed by televised documentaries and interviews. Optimism bias negatively moderated the relationships of TV documentaries/interviews and radio, but not those of the Internet and print media, with self-reported environmental activism. Overall, the findings are indicative that print media, TV documentaries/interviews, and the Internet are helpful for environmental campaigning. Implications for theory, policy, and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air quality management is underpinned by continuous measurements of concentrations of target air pollutants in monitoring stations. Although many approaches for optimizing the number and location of air quality monitoring stations are described in the literature, these are usually focused on dense networks. However, there are small and medium-size urban areas that only require one monitoring station but also suffer from severe air pollution. Given that target pollutants are usually measured at the same sampling points; it is necessary to develop a methodology to determine the optimal location of the single station. In this paper, such a methodology is proposed based on maximizing an objective function, that balances between different pollutants measured in the network. The methodology is applied to a set of data available for the city of Cartagena, in southeast Spain. A sensitivity analysis reveals that 2 small areas of the studied city account for 80% of the optimal potential locations, which makes them ideal candidates for setting up the monitoring station. The methodology is easy to implement, robust and supports the decision-making process regarding the siting of fixed sampling sites. Image 1 • Small and medium-size urban areas require one fixed sampling point of air pollutants. • Few studies explore methodologies to locate a sole air quality monitoring station. • A multi-pollutant methodology to select the best location of the station is shown. • The methodology is proven to be robust and underpins air quality management. This paper describes an easy-to-use methodology to find out the optimum location for setting up a single air quality monitoring station, especially useful for small and medium-size urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Chill requirement (CR) estimates vary depending on the methodology employed. • Discrepancies in methodologies introduce important uncertainties for future orchard planning. • CR fulfilment is vital for assessing the adaptation of fruit tree cultivars. • Future chill levels will threaten high CR cultivars' adaptability potential. Temperate fruit trees enter a dormant state and resume growth development once cultivar-specific chill requirements (CR) are fulfilled. Sustainable fruit production requires crucial knowledge of the CR of the varieties to predict the adaptability of crops to future climate conditions. Experimental methodologies based on exposing shoots to forcing conditions, and statistical methods based on analysing long-term phenology records, such as Partial Least Square regression (PLS), are commonly used to estimate CR. To demonstrate the importance of unifying methodologies, we compared CR estimations from six approaches that included bud weight increase (30 % and 50 %), different percentages of bud break (30 %, 50 % and 90 %) after forcing conditions, and PLS regression. The CR of four almond and four apricot cultivars were experimentally and statistically determined in Murcia, South-Eastern Spain. Comparisons between approaches revealed that the choice of the method had a significant effect on the estimates. Large variation in CR estimates was found between PLS regression and the experimental methodologies in some late-flowering cultivars. To assess the adaptation potential of a certain cultivar to future climate conditions based on the CR estimates obtained through the different methodologies, we compared the probability of fulfilling cultivar-specific CR's under two global warming scenarios. Projections revealed a marked decreasing trend of chill availability in the region, which is already threatening the cultivation of genotypes with high CR. This study demonstrates that the variability of methodologies used to quantify CR has an important impact on assessing the probability of a successful adaptation. CR obtained by a certain methodology suggest that insufficient chill might be an increasingly common situation for some cultivars, potentially resulting in production risks. Conversely, other methodologies appear to indicate a more favourable performance for the same cultivar. Implementing standardized methods and metrics is essential to ensure more reliable information regarding the prospects for future crop adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Different chilling requirements (CRs) are required for apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) cultivars to overcome dormancy. In a global climate change context, knowledge of these requirements is critical; producers must select the appropriate cultivars to avoid losses caused by an inadequate cultivar adaptation in a particular area. Important differences have been reported in the CRs of cultivars of temperate fruit crops that are cultivated in different climatic conditions. However, the lack of standardisation of protocols to calculate CRs hinders the comparison of the results obtained using different methodologies. This study was aimed at analysing adaptation in terms of the CR fulfilment of commercial apricot cultivars grown successfully in different climatic conditions. Apricot-growing locations with different latitudes and altitudes and cultivars with varying CRs were chosen. The plant material spanned the CR range for this species in South Africa and Spain. Three of the examined cultivars were tested simultaneously in both countries. The Utah, Dynamic and hours below 7°C models for estimating CR were evaluated and compared. The cultivars examined displayed different CR ranges in Spain and South Africa. We concluded that CR differences higher than 50% can be found for clonal plant material grown successfully in different climatic conditions. This variation might be associated both with different temperatures and other factors such as latitude. No significant differences in heat requirements were found among cultivars in Spain, suggesting that this variable might not be cultivar-specific. Finally, the distribution of clonal plant material provides an excellent framework for studying the climatic adaptation of crops. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to describe the prevalence of total, known and unknown diabetes mellitus and impaired fasting glucose (IFG) in the population of Murcia (SE Spain), a Mediterranean area with a high prevalence of obesity. Therefore, 2562 subjects (>or=20 years) were selected by stratified random sampling and a survey was carried out by telephone, together with a physical examination and biochemical determinations. The ADA-1997 diagnostic criteria were used. The crude prevalence of total diabetes was 11% (9.5-12.6%), known diabetes 7.8% (6.5-9.2%), unknown diabetes 3.2% (2.4-4.2%) and IFG 4.9% (3.9-6.1%). Both total diabetes and IFG were higher in men than in women, with prevalence rates increasing with age. People with diabetes and IFG had higher BMI, blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride values than the rest of the population. No difference in the prevalence of diabetes was observed between the rural and urban populations. The prevalence of diabetes in Murcia is high compared to the rest of Spain and the world, suggesting that the possible benefits attributed to some characteristics of the diet of this Mediterranean population are not sufficient to counteract the risk factors associated with the disease.