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Germination of 2000-year-old seeds of Phoenix dactylifera from Judean desert archaeological sites provides a unique opportunity to study the Judean date palm, described in antiquity for the quality, size, and medicinal properties of its fruit, but lost for centuries. Microsatellite genotyping of germinated seeds indicates that exchanges of genetic material occurred between the Middle East (eastern) and North Africa (western) date palm gene pools, with older seeds exhibiting a more eastern nuclear genome on a gradient from east to west of genetic contributions. Ancient seeds were significantly longer and wider than modern varieties, supporting historical records of the large size of the Judean date. These findings, in accord with the region's location between east and west date palm gene pools, suggest that sophisticated agricultural practices may have contributed to the Judean date's historical reputation. Given its exceptional storage potentialities, the date palm is a remarkable model for seed longevity research.

Assuming a positive outcome of the parliamentary procedure for laws and, thus, the transformation of the official cadastre for buildings and land into a soil cadastre (urban, extra-urban and cadastre for the conservation of natural or semi-natural soil diversity) would start a new era for pedology. Finally, after many decades of activity to expand soil culture in Italy, almost all Italian families would be in contact with a soil specialist. Land use and redefined plots would be handled with greater care and responsibility. Experts in agricultural and forestry and biodiversity conservation would have a new impetus in their activity. Furthermore, economists will also have to address new issues. The aim of this work was to analyse how to meet the needs of a future Cadastre with respect to soil information both from a descriptive (Cadastral Certificate) and a cartographic point of view and to outline a practical guideline for future technicians who will be in charge of maintaining and updating the soil information system. To this end, we used the area of Caccamo (Sicily) and its soilscape as an example to put this concept into practice. On the one hand, this contribution aims at stimulating the start of a scientific-technical debate and, on the other hand, to give practical indications for the solution of the problem., EQA - International Journal of Environmental Quality, Vol 39 (2020)

Humus forms are a distinctive morphological indicator of soil organic matter decomposition. The spatial distribution of humus forms depends on environmental factors such as topography, climate and vegetation. In montane and subalpine forests, environmental influences show a high spatial heterogeneity, which is reflected by a high spatial variability of humus forms. This study aims at examining spatial patterns of humus forms and their dependence on the spatial scale in a high mountain forest environment (Val di Sole/Val di Rabbi, Trentino, Italian Alps). On the basis of the distributions of environmental covariates across the study area, we described humus forms at the local scale (six sampling sites), slope scale (60 sampling sites) and landscape scale (30 additional sampling sites). The local variability of humus forms was analyzed with regard to the ground cover type. At the slope and landscape scale, spatial patterns of humus forms were modeled applying random forests and ordinary kriging of the model residuals. The results indicate that the occurrence of the humus form classes Mull, Mullmoder, Moder, Amphi and Eroded Moder generally depends on the topographical position. Local-scale patterns are mostly related to micro-topography (local accumulation and erosion sites) and ground cover, whereas slope-scale patterns are mainly connected with slope exposure and elevation. Patterns at the landscape scale show a rather irregular distribution, as spatial models at this scale do not account for local to slope-scale variations of humus forms. Moreover, models at the slope scale perform distinctly better than at the landscape scale. In conclusion, the results of this study highlight that landscape-scale predictions of humus forms should be accompanied by local- and slope-scale studies in order to enhance the general understanding of humus form patterns., Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe; 1128