Feature Channels: Plants

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This holiday season brings surprising news about your Christmas tree. Scientists just discovered that globally, trees growing in wetter regions are more sensitive to drought.

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When a sweet corn breeder reached out in 2021 to report severe injury from the herbicide tolpyralate, Marty Williams hoped it was a fluke isolated to a single inbred line. But two years later, after methodical field, greenhouse, and genetic testing, his new Pest Management Science study not only confirms sensitivity to tolpyralate in 49 sweet corn and field corn lines, but also reveals a new genetic vulnerability that may affect corn more generally.

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A new U-M study published in JAMA Network Open examines past-year use of some of these hemp-derived cannabinoids, including cannabidiol (CBD), Delta 8-THC, cannabigerol (CBG), and cannabinol (CBN).

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An international team including researchers from the University of Granada (UGR) and the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC) has studied the distribution of 115 species of birds in spring and 72 that spend the winter in nine European cities.

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The program, “Building Capacity in Microbiome Innovation for Plant Health, Soil Fertility and Environmental Sustainability,” is the first workforce-development USDA-NIFA grant to a research-intensive Hispanic-Serving Institution, which will help address the complex challenges facing traditional agriculture and declining interest of the next generation in food, agriculture and natural resources careers.

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Whether Santa needs some ideas for you or there’s a gardener you’re stumped shopping for, a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service expert has some holiday gift ideas.

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From the 1950s to the 1970s, a Colombian priest named Padre Gustavo Huertas collected rocks and fossils near a town called Villa de Levya.

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It's the moooost wonderful time...of the year! Are you looking for new story ideas that are focused on the winter holiday season? Perhaps you're working on a story on on managing stress and anxiety? Perhaps you're working on a story on seasonal affective disorder? Or perhaps your editor asked you to write a story on tracking Santa? Look no further. Check out the Winter Holidays channel.

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This innovation in forest biometrics introduces advanced models for accurately predicting the size and carbon-storing capacity of American forests, playing a key role in combating climate change and guiding sustainable forest management efforts.

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Researchers have uncovered the intricate molecular mechanism used by parasitic phytoplasma bacteria, known for inducing 'zombie-like' effects in plants.

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Scientists from the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) have uncovered one of nature’s most potent tool in an arsenal to combat today’s agricultural challenges: agro-microbials - or agro-chemicals of natural origin - that can enhance the synergy between crops and microbes, and ultimately improve crop yield and productivity.

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A new PNAS Nexus study led by scientists from the USDA Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign takes a retrospective look at glyphosate efficacy after tolerant crops were commercialized.

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Aquaporins, which move water through membranes of plant cells, were not thought to be able to permeate sugar molecules, but University of Adelaide researchers have observed sucrose transport in plant aquaporins for the first time, challenging this theory.

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If you are heading to a farm or the local lot this weekend to pick out your perfect Christmas tree, Timothy Waller, an evergreen researcher, has some advice for you. Waller, an agricultural agent with Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Cumberland County, has been working on Christmas tree disease management and variety demonstrations as part of his ornamental research efforts.

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Maize is one of the world’s most widely grown crops. It is used for both human and animal foods and holds great cultural significance, especially for indigenous peoples in the Americas.

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A team of scientists from Cornell University and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have revealed an unexpected function of a transport protein and its role in plant regulatory mechanisms. Their research, published in The Plant Cell earlier this year, could help reduce human mineral deficiencies by packing essential micronutrients into edible parts of plants.

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New research from Northern Arizona University has explained coast redwood’s remarkable ability to recover from very severe fire, a rare sign of optimism amid a landscape increasingly scarred by severe fires.

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An international team of researchers around botanists at the University of Vienna, Austria, has now analyzed the morphological diversity of fossilized flowers and compared it with the diversity of living species.

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RUDN University agronomists and colleagues from China and Iran helped tomatoes cope with the toxic effect of aluminum in acidic soils with the help of melatonin.

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Ed Olsen, an agent at Henrico unit of Virginia Cooperative Extension, shares tips for holiday plant care.

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In a first-of-its-kind study, NAU research professor Chris Hakkenberg is taking a necessary step to finding a solution to biodiversity loss: mapping and measuring biodiversity across the U.S. using NASA's space-borne lidar.

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Forest modeling by Oregon State University scientists shows that a site’s productivity – an indicator of how fast trees grow and how much biomass they accumulate – is the main factor that determines which time period between timber harvests allows for maximum above-ground carbon sequestration.

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Consumer preferences in floral arrangements don’t necessarily match the designs that florists are taught to make, according to a new study by researchers at North Carolina State University.

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The world’s total population is expected to reach 9.9 billion by 2050. This rapid increase in population is boosting the demand for agriculture to cater for the increased demand. Below are some of the latest research and features on agriculture and farming in the Agriculture channel on Newswise.

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Cannabinoids, naturally occurring compounds found in hemp plants, may have evolved to deter pests from chewing on them, according to Cornell University research that showed higher cannabinoid concentrations in hemp leaves led to proportionately less damage from insect larvae.

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ST. LOUIS, MO, November 13, 2023 — An international research team led by James Umen, PhD, member, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center has made an unexpected discovery of a biased counting mechanism used by the single-celled green alga Chlamydomonas to control cell division. Chlamydomonas cells can grow very large and then divide multiple times in succession.

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Demand is growing for organic cotton in the U.S., but imports continue to pick up the slack of inadequate domestic production. A new project led by Texas A&M AgriLife Research aims to turn the situation around by identifying the challenges to and opportunities for U.S. organic cotton growers.

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Yong-Lak Park, professor of entomology at the West Virginia University Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, is researching the efficacy of dropping natural enemy insects on invasive plants using drone technology and artificial intelligence as a means of destroying these plants more efficiently.

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Waterhemp, the aggressive weed threatening Corn Belt crop production, is throwing curveballs once again, according to researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The weed has famously developed resistance to not one or two, but seven herbicide sites-of-action classes, nearly exhausting the chemical tools farmers can use to defend their livelihood.

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Kale is considered particularly healthy due, among other things, to its high secondary plant compound content, including the glucosinolates that give the vegetable its typical cabbage flavour.

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In October 2023, the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory, officially launched a new initiative to expand biological and environmental research at the world leading X-ray and analysis facility.

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The upcoming daylight saving time “fall back” may be a drag for many people — but new research from Michigan State University scientists reveals that plants have found ways to cope.

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Beta-diversity of biological assemblages is central to biogeography and ecology. Researchers from Illinois State Museum in the US and Chongqing University in China have presented a set of novel global maps showing geographic patterns of genus-based beta-diversity of flowering plants.

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It has been just over a year since the Danforth Center acquired the 140-acre farm that became the home of the new Danforth Center Field Research Site. Located in St. Charles, this historic farm is being used as a space for scientists to develop field-based experiments to understand how crops interact with their environment.