PROJECT SUSTAINFARM | Agriculture Expands its Possibilities by Combining Elements
The SustainFARM project seeks to augment the agronomic, environmental and economic performance of Integrated Food and Non-food Production Systems (IFNS)
Dehesa health starts from the ground up
University of Cordoba research analyzes how changes in the structure of soil microbiota affect holm oak decline
Silvicultural treatments can increase the capacity to absorb carbon in forests
The Department of Forest Engineering at the University of Cordoba used LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology to plan Aleppo pine replanting in search of the highest absorption of carbon
The current importance of climate change has turned carbon sequestration into the focus of strategies aimed at reducing the concentration of CO2 in the atomosphere. Given their role as sinks for natural carbon, forest ecosystems can be allies in environmental sustainability. However, the challenge in research lies in increasing the “sequestration power” of these ecosystems.
Modern humans replaced Neanderthals in southern Spain 44,000 years ago
The University of Cordoba, in collaboration with the University of Granada, participated in an international study published today in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, proving that Neanderthals were replaced by modern humans in southern Iberia 5,000 years before than previously thought
A study carried out in Bajondillo Cave (in the town of Torremolinos, in the province of Malaga) by an international team made up of researchers from Spain, Japan and the U.K. revealed that modern humans replaced Neanderthals 44,000 years ago. This study, published today in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution and in which University of Cordoba and University of Granada scientists participated, demonstrates that replacing Neanderthals for modern humans in southern Iberia is an early, not late, occurrence, in the context of Western Europe. That is to say it happened 5,000 years before previously thought up until now.
Drought determines Holm oak defense strategies
Research at the University of Cordoba underscores the importance of water stress on the response of Holm oaks facing Phytophthora infection
Holm oak decline is threatening the sustainability of the dehesas, making it one of the most worrisome problems in the field of forest health for the scientific community. Depsite considering the pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi the main trigger for this situation, external conditions, such as extreme drought, are also determining factors in the process of dying woodland.
Smart appliances learn how to self diagnose
A University of Cordoba research group has developed a low cost sensor to custom measure the power quality of the structure in each device
More and more facilities are implementing management systems under the industry 4.0 paradigm based on smartness and efficient management. In particular, appliances come with an increasing amount of functions that make household chores easier: refrigerators that regulate their own temperatures or predict which foods need to go on the shopping list. But, what if, in addition to these features, appliances were able to measure the quality of the power they are supplied with? This would allow for self diagnoses, knowledge about what happened in the case of malfunction and the prevention of future malfunctions.
Keeping phosphorus under control to improve the quality of life of those who suffer from renal failure
A University of Cordoba research team, Cordoba’s Maimonides Institute of Biomedical Research and Queen Sofia University Hospital link phosphorus normalization in blood to a decrease in a hormone that damages the heart
The FGF23 (Fibroblast growth factor 23) hormone originates in bone to communicate with the kidney whose duty it is to excrete excess phosphorus that the bone detects. Its main function is bone-kidney communication to eliminate phosphorus, but what happens when the person has renal failure and kidneys that do not work in addition to an impaired excretion ability? What happens is that the failing kidney is unable to abide by FGF23. Nevertheless, the bone keeps producing this hormone because it does not detect that the kidney has stopped working, resulting in a build-up of FGF23 in the blood.
The chromosome responsible for asparagus gender is characterized
A University of Cordoba research project draws a genetic map of garden asparagus and marks the chromosome determining gender
Garden asparagus is, from a financial perspective, the most important asparagus species of all. Its cultivation area is equal to that of garlic, carrots and eggplants, making it decisive for the asparagus sector.
In pursuit of a supersheep
A research group at the University of Cordoba Genetics Department has analyzed gene variation in five Spanish sheep meat breeds as the first step to increase profitability in livestock
How could a sheep farmer’s job be made easier if they had a tool to choose the meat breed best suited to their needs beforehand? Much money and time would be saved by using a panel of markers to select a breed with genes associated with meat production. Finding an efficient and cost effective way to do so led the AGR-2018 “Improving and conserving genetic resources of domestic animals” research group to count sheep and above all, to analyze the genetic variability of their RNA (ribonucleic acid).
A new harvester decreases the cost of olive picking in traditional olive groves
The University of Cordoba Mechanization and Rural Technology research group designed a harvester that improves the profitability of traditional olive farming
Productive traditional olive groves, which make up 70% of Andalusian olive farming, are in a complicated situation in terms of financial sustainability. The lack of mechanization so vital to picking olives has made new already-mechanized plantations such as intensive and superintensive olive groves surpass traditional olive groves, which still spend 40% of their harvesting budgets on picking.