Year of Endorsement: 1928

Number of Endorsement’s Act/Government’s Gazette Number (FEK): FEK 112/30-06-1928 v.Α’, followed by FEK 362/17-9-1937 v.Α’ and 86/6-4-1981 v.Α’.

Communication: School of Agriculture: AUTH, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece. 2310 998602, mobile: 6977381918, e-mail: chdordas@agro.auth.gr

 

Members

Christos Dordas, Professor

Ioannis Tsialtas, Professor

George Menexes, Professor

 

Thomas Koutsos, Teaching and Research Support Personnel

 

PhD candidates and MSc students in Lab. of Agronomy in 2020-21 season

Eleni Anthimidou, PhD candidate

Maria Paresidou, PhD candidate

Iakovos Kalamartzis, PhD candidate

Ioannis Lianardakis, PhD candidate

Emmanuel Pratsinakis, PhD candidate

Zacharenia Kyrana, PhD candidate

Anna Karypidou, MSc student

Theofanis Koutrouvelis, MSc student

Apostolos Konstantopoulos, MSc student

Maria Laskari, MSc student

Evangelia Bourogianni, MSc student

Georgios Kalfas, MSc student

Konstantinos Sapountzakis, MSc student

Paschalis Papakaloudis, MSc student

Maria Tsolianou, MSc student

 

Emeritus and retired professors of the laboratory

Athanasios Gagianas, Emeritus Professor

Eleftherohorinos Ilias, Emeritus Professor

Papakosta-Tasopoulou Despina, Emeritus Professor

Fotiadis Nikolaos, Retired professor

Achilleas Sfikas, Retired professor

 

Collaborating scientists

Dr. Anastasios Lithourgidis, Director of the University farm and Head of the Agronomy Department of the University Farm.

Dr. Chrysanthi Pankou, post doctorate researcher.

Dr. Parthenopi Ralli, post doctorate researcher.

Dr. Dimitrios Vlachostergios, Hellenic Agricultural Organization-“Demeter” Researcher

Dr. Dimitrios Baxevanos, Hellenic Agricultural Organization-“Demeter”

Dr. Ioannis Mylonas, Hellenic Agricultural Organization-“Demeter”

Dr. Maria Irakli, Hellenic Agricultural Organization-“Demeter”

Dr. Dimitra Loka, Hellenic Agricultural Organization-“Demeter”

Professor D. Lazari, Department of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Professor Lana Zorić, Univ. of Novi Sad, Serbia

Professor Sergey Shabala, Univ. of Tasmania, Australia

 

Research interests:

Physiology of field crops including aromatic and medicinal crops, plant nutrition and fertilization, abiotic stress tolerance, cropping systems (conventional, organic, integrated and sustainable). Alternative crops for Greece. Low input cropping (fertilizers, pesticides, water, seeds and energy) in field crops. Effect of abiotic and biotic stress on field crops. Evaluation of genotypes.

Use of stable C isotopes for studying water use efficiency variation in C3 plant species. Use of stable Ν isotopes for studying the N cycling focusing on symbiotic N2-fixation. Soil-plant relationships and their effects on yield and quality of field crops. Physiology from leaf to plant community level and its relationship with yield and quality of field crops. Water relations and water stress tolerance. Yield and quality of winter cereals and legumes, pasture plants, sugar beets, cotton and oil crops. Evaluation of wild relatives as industrial crops.

Design and statistical analysis of agricultural experiments. Multivariate and multidimensional data analysis of biological data. Statistical software. Educational software for statistics and mathematics.

Biology of resistant and sensitive weeds to herbicides. Competition-allelopathy between weeds and crops. Control of weeds in field, vegetable and tree crops. Effect of essential oils from aromatic plant on weeds. Activity and selectivity of new herbicides. Leaching, adsorption and field persistence of herbicides in soils. Implementation of integrated management in agricultural production. Investigation of the herbicide resistance mechanisms [seedling level (bioassays), whole plants, but also at the molecular level (DNA sequencing, restriction enzymes, in vitro enzyme action)] of various weed populations with putative resistance to herbicides and methods to control them.

 

4. Educational activity

Undergraduate Courses: Agronomy, Cereals and Legumes, Industrial Crops, Statistics, Weed Science, Aromatic and Medicinal Plants, Agricultural Experimentation, Mathematics.

Postgraduate Courses: Plant and Crop Physiology and Climate Change, Integrative Crop Management, Biometry I, Biometry II, Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Design of Experiments and Data Analysis with Statistical Packages, Spatial Analysis and Agro-Geoinformatics, Physiology and Biochemistry of Action Mode of Herbicides, Integrative and Organic Management of Horticultural Crops.

 

Research activity of the Laboratory

• Investigation of various common barnyardgrass (ECHSS) populations for possible development of resistance to ALS-inhibiting herbicides used in rice (2010-2011). BASF Company HELLAS A.B.E.E.
• Ιnvestigation at plant seedling (bioassays in Petri dish) and molecular (DNA sequencing) level of red rice populations (from rice grown in Thessaloniki prefecture) for possible development of resistance to herbicide imazamox (2010-2011). BASF Company HELLAS S.A.
• Three field experiments to study the effect of nitrogen fertilizer on nutrition, chlorophyll and on performance of cotton (2011). YARA Company Hellas S.A.
• Investigating and solving problems related to the agronomic practices applied in oil seed crops grown in Central Macedonia (2011-2012). Company FYTOENERGEIA SA.
• Development and evaluation of the Risk Test method as a part of Integrated Weed Resistance Management Practices including crop rotation, cultivation methods, herbicide rotation and appropriate herbicide application (2011-2012). Syngenta Limited, European Regional Centre, England.
• Development of Information Technology (IT) and molecular diagnostic tools, for improving the sustainability of pesticide based approaches to control agricultural pests of major economic importance in Greece. Program “THALIS”.
• Pot experiment to evaluate seven Echinοchloa biotypes for their resistance to ALS and ACCase inhibiting herbicides as well as one pot experiment to assess the efficacy of several ALS inhibiting herbicides against two Cyperus difformis biotypes (2013-2014). Dow AgroSciences Export S.A.
• Evaluation series and corn hybrids for drought resistance (09syn-22-603, GSRT, NSRF 2007-2013, “COOPERATION 2009”, 2011-2015).
• Investigation of the genetic stock of cultivated species for the upgrading and improvement of agronomic characteristics of principal European crops, Budget 15000 euro (Bilateral E&T Cooperation between Greece-Slovakia).
• Sustainable production of durum wheat in Greece, (Financing company Barilla Hellas 2013-2014).
• “Sustainable feed production for balanced development of plant and animal production using new technologies” Program industrial research and Technology Development (PAVET) 2013 1330-BAT-2013.
• “ARCHIMEDES III: SUPPORT of RESEARCH TEAMS in TEI” Evaluation of resistance to stress conditions (drought, salinity) old and very rare barley germplasm with ailing agricultural utilization purpose areas.
• TEMPUS IV: «New MSc Curricula in Applied Biosciences at Georgian and Armenian Universities; (MAPB)». 2009-2012. European Commission.
• “Inoculation effectiveness of soybean using commercial and domestic breeds of Rhizobium”. PIONEER HI-BRED HELLAS SA.
• Genotypes of jimsonweed (Datura) as a source of pharmaceutical substances (alkaloids) and oil for biodiesel production “. Funding Research Committee of AUTH.
• “Ag-Celence: investigation of the effect of the fungicide Pyraclostobin in physiology of sunflower and tackling the diseases.” BASF finance Hellas SA.
• Ag-Celence: investigation of the effect of the fungicide Pyraclostobin on wheat physiology and diseases”. BASF finance Hellas SA.
• “Embryometabolomics: Metabolomics as a tool for the assessment of embryo growth and viability in in-vitro fertilization”. Thales – Support of the interdisciplinary and/or inter-institutional research and innovation. Operational Programme: Education and lifelong learning “investing in knowledge society”, Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs, Greece. National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) 2007-2013 “programme for development”, European Social Fund, European Union.
• ReMIX: Redesigning European cropping systems based on species MIXtures Horizon 2020 Call: H2020-SFS-2016-2017 (Sustainable Food Security – Resilient and resource-efficient value chains), Topic: SFS-02-2016 (2017-2020).
• Effect of water availability on Greek landraces of basil. 2018-2020. «Support of new researchers with emphasis on young researchers. ΕΔΒΜ34.
• MYCCORN (2018-2021): The ability of corn genotypes to exploit the available resources at plant level and search for effective mycorrhizal inoculants for improving productivity « RESEARCH–CREATE–INNOVATE»
• Legumes4Protein (2018-2021): Sustainable legume production for the balanced development of plant and animal production with the use of new technologies. «RESEARCH–CREATE–INNOVATE»
• LensBreed (2018-2021): Assessment and improvement of native populations and lentil varieties for particular agronomic, physiological and qualitative characteristics. «RESEARCH–CREATE–INNOVATE»
• Biocircular (2018-2021): Bioproduction systems of circular precision agriculture. «RESEARCH–CREATE–INNOVATE»
• Biodiversify (2020-2023, Prima 2019): Boost ecosystem services through high Biodiversity-based Mediterranean Farming Systems.

 

Services provision to third parties

Brief description of the services provided to third parties (organizations, companies, institutions, etc.).

• Evaluation of genotypes of field crops and aromatic and medicinal plants.
• Evaluation of plant protection products.
• Quality control of seeds.
• Technical support for Weed Science and plant nutrition.
• Designing of experiments-scientific and technical support.
• Consulting services.
• Autopsies.
• Writing of technical reports.
• Planning of experiments and scientific research.
• Statistical analysis.
• Education/training/training on the subjects of the laboratory.