Context: The soybean seed yield in the Huang-Huai-Hai (HHH) region is challenged by high temperatures before blooming. Straw mulching can act to reduce topsoil temperature. However, little is known about whether changes in topsoil temperature contribute to the optimization of soybean root and canopy structure and, ultimately, yield. Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of straw mulching on soybean topsoil temperature, root growth, and canopy structure in the HHH region, China. Methods: A randomized block design was adopted (2020–2023) in the field, including three straw treatments: straw removing (SR), straw mulching (SM), and straw crushing (SC). Topsoil temperature, root morphology, leaf area index (LAI), light transmittance, canopy photosynthesis, dry matter accumulation, and seed yield of soybean under different treatments were measured. Furthermore, the test results were validated by pot experiment (LT: topsoil cooling, CT: topsoil non-cooling) in 2024. Results: Before soybean blooming, the highest topsoil temperature was 28.47℃ in SR, followed by 27.47℃ in SC and 26.95℃ in SM. Compared to SR and SC, the root length, root surface area, root volume and root dry weight of SM increased by an average of 26.04 %, 27.79 %, 29.13 % and 38.82 %, respectively. Soybean root dry matter weight was significantly positively correlated (P < 0.01) with the LAI and above-ground dry matter accumulation. Compared to SR and SC, Fv/Fm, Y(II), and ETR under SM treatment increased by 8.38 %, 7.94 %, and 7.73 %, respectively. Y(II) of the LT treatment was also significantly (P < 0.05) increased by 17.53 % compared to CT. Among the three treatments, soybean canopy photosynthetic rate and seed yield under SM treatment were, on average, significantly increased by 9.97 %, and 11.87 %, respectively. Furthermore, we identified the LAI characteristics of high-yield soybean canopy: 2.22 0.62 in the lower layer. Conclusion and implications: These findings imply that regulating topsoil temperature through straw mulching optimizes root and canopy development, improving soybean yield. This study provides insights into mitigating heat stress and enhancing sustainable soybean production in warm climates.

Questions: Due to their high ecological and agronomical variability, borderland regions offer an excellent opportunity to study assembly patterns. In this study we compared the influence of various factors on summer annual weed communities consisting of both native and introduced species. Location: The borderland region of Austria and Hungary. Methods: We assessed the abundance of weed species in 300 fields of six summer annual crops, and collected information on 26 background variables for each plot. We applied redundancy analysis (RDA) to estimate multivariate species responses and variation partitioning to compare the relative importance of three groups of variables (environmental variables, management variables, and country as a singleton group), and we also checked for statistical association between country and the predictors of the other two groups. Results: The full RDA model explained 22.02% of the variance in weed species composition. Variation partitioning showed that environment and management had similarly high (~8%) influence on weeds, while country had a modest yet substantial (~1%) effect, and there was relatively little overlap between the variance attributable to the three groups. Comparing the individual variables, country ranked third (after preceding crop, and actual crop). The effects of 15 further variables were also significant, including seven management, and seven environmental variables, as well as the location of the sampling plots within the fields. Comparisons between the countries showed that farming type, preceding crops, tillage system, tillage depth and field size were significantly different between the countries. Conclusions: Country exhibited a small but significant influence on weed community composition, which could not be explained with easily accessible management and environmental variables. This suggests that the distinct historical agronomical background of the two countries, possibly involving some legacies of the former Iron Curtain period, still has an impact on the weed species composition of arable fields.

Within the soil spectroscopy community, there is an ongoing discussion addressing the comparison of the performance of prediction models built on a global calibration database, versus a local calibration database. In this study, this issue is addressed by spiking of global databases with local samples. The soil samples were analysed with MIR and XRF sensors. The samples were further measured using traditional wet chemistry methods to build the prediction models for seventeen major parameters. The prediction models applied by AgroCares, the company that assisted in this study, combine spectral information from MIR and XRF into a single ‘fused-spectrum’. The local dataset of 640 samples was split into 90% train and 10% test samples. To illustrate the benefits of using local calibration samples, three separate prediction models were built per element. For each model, 0%, 50% (randomly selected) and 100% of the local training samples were added to the global dataset. The remaining 10% local samples were used for validation. Seventeen soil parameters were selected to illustrate the differences in performance across a range of soil qualities, using the validation set to measure performance. The results showed that many models already exhibit an excellent level of performance (R² ≥ 0.95) even without local samples. However, there was a clear trend that, as more local calibration samples were added, both R² and ratio of performance to interquantile distance (RPIQ) increase.

The Carpathian Basin is one of the most important regions in terms of the invasion of the common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) in Europe. The invasion history of this weed, however, seems to have been assessed differently in Austria and Hungary: Scientists in both countries assumed that this species had become abundant earlier and had caused more problems in their own than in other country. The goal of this study is to resolve the historical misunderstandings and scrutinize the related popular beliefs by a concise literature overview and an extensive analysis of the current patterns in ragweed infestations in crops in the borderlands in eastern Austria and western Hungary. The abundance of A. artemisiifolia was measured in 200 arable fields across the region, along with 31 background variables. Data were analysed using binomial generalized linear models (GLM), decision tree models and variation partitioning. Ambrosia artemisiifolia occurred more frequently in Hungary, but there were no significant differences in the proportion of larger cover values recorded in these two countries, and 'cover values > 10%' were even slightly more common in Austria.We found that previous crops of maize and soya bean and conventional farming were associated with the higher abundances in Austria, while organic farming was associated with relatively higher frequencies of heavy infestations in Hungarian fields. In the overall analysis crop cover was the most important variable with low crop cover associated with high ragweed abundance. Temperature and phosphorous fertilizer were negatively, while precipitation and soil phosphorous concentration positively associated with the abundance values. Land-use variables accounted for more of the variance in the abundance patterns of common ragweed than environmental variables. The current patterns in ragweed distributionmight indicate that a saturation process is still underway on the Austrian side. The saturation lag of 20-30 years is possibly due to several factors and the role of the Iron Curtain in determining cross-border exchange of propagules could be decisive. Nevertheless, the discrepancies uncovered in the accounts of the invasion of Hungarian and Austrian authors might also be seen as legacies of the Iron Curtain, which were caused by mutual limitations on access to national data and literature of the other country in a critical period of rapid ragweed spread. These discrepancies, that had a long-lasting effect on the work of scientific communities, are documented here in detail for the first time.

Variable rate technology (VRT) in nutrient management has been developed in order to apply crop inputs according to the required amount of fertilizers. There is an ongoing debate among experts on how to define management zones as well as how to define the required amount of fertilizers for phosphorus and nitrogen replenishment for winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production. The objective of the study reported in this paper was to investigate the effect of variable rate phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizer application in winter wheat in Mezőföld, Hungary. Winter wheat production based on variable rate nutrient treatment resulted in 1.19 t/ha more yield than the farm average while applying an average 108 kg/ha less nitrogen and 37 kg/ha more phosphorus fertilizer.