Unlocking Territorial Identity: A Multidisciplinary Geochemical-Isotopic and Chlorophyll Fluorimetric Approach to Enhance the Typicity and Resilience of Coastal Sandy Soil Crops

The characterization of territorial markers is essential for understanding the typicity and resilience of crops cultivated on coastal sandy soils. Coastal agriculture has a relevance in Northern Italy, where the coast of the Po Valley-Veneto basin is intensively cultivated and includes some PGI crops. However, such environments represent marginal land for agriculture, often subject to unique climatic and pedological conditions, making them prone to drought and salinization. The plant’s ability to cope with potentially harsh conditions depends on the plant physiology and results in recognizable markers in the plant biomass. To establish the coastal crop distinct qualities and adaptability, the integration of geochemical-isotopic and chlorophyll fluorimetric techniques is proposed as a robust method for the definition of markers of territoriality. The geochemical-isotopic approach enables a comprehensive analysis of elemental and isotopic signatures in plants that reflect soil composition and plant uptake processes. This allows for tracing the origins and environmental conditions associated with specific crops. Fluorimetric analysis provides insights into the plant’s photosynthetic efficiency on which the plant growth depends, therefore providing a context for the interpretation of geochemical-isotopic results. The present contribution exemplifies the potential of the methods for the characterization of some coastal crops in Emilia-Romagna Region.