Cristofano, Francesco (2023) The use of protein-hydrolysates as biostimulants of vegetable crops: elucidating their mode of action and optimizing their effectiveness through a multidisciplinary approach. [Tesi di dottorato]

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Abstract

Climate change is a pressing matter of anthropogenic nature to which agriculture contributes by abusing production inputs such as inorganic fertilizers and fertigation water, thus degrading land and water sources. Moreover, as the increase in the demand of food in 2050 is estimated to be 25 to 70% more than what is currently produced today, a sustainable intensification of agriculture is needed. Our research focused on principles found in accordance with the EU Regulation on biostimulants, to: 1) Provide a representation of the literature in Chapter 2 2) Determine the optimal dosage rate and application modality of protein hydrolysate biostimulants in plants grown in floating system. The research has been performed due to a lack of compelling evidence in the analyzed publications in the literature review. The results of the trail can be found in Chapter 3. 3) Increase nutrient use efficiency i.e., providing increased growth at the optimal and suboptimal nitrogen nutrient input. The results of the trials can be found in Chapter 4 and 5. 4) Increase tolerance to abiotic stresses, which in our case consisted of the application of a salt stress. The results of the trials are in Chapter 6 and 7. 5) In all cases, increase phytochemical and nutraceutical contents.

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