Facing a climate crisis, we may someday spray sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere to form a cloud that cools the Earth, but suddenly stopping the spraying would have a severe global impact on animals and plants, according to the first study on the potential biological impacts of geoengineering, or climate intervention.
A new synthetic hormone promises to tease apart the many different roles of the plant hormone auxin and could lead to a new way to ripen fruit.
Can farmers produce at least 1 billion tons of biomass per year that can be used as biofuels feedstock? The answer is yes.
Consumption of crops is outgrowing the production of crops around the world. Malnutrition and starvation are major international issues. Fertilizers can help growers increase food production, but how? The January 22 Sustainable, Secure Food blog post explains how fertilizers help growers provide nutritious, affordable food for the world’s growing population.
Researchers have created the first network map for 200 of the membrane proteins that help plants sense microbes or other stresses. The map shows how a few key proteins act as master nodes critical for network integrity, and the map also reveals unknown interactions.
CSU students with big ideas on how California can preserve its energy, agriculture and water supply need look no further than the BlueTechValley Innovation Cluster to bring their concepts to life.
Three University of Florida scientists will use the grants to study ways to help growers cope with the disease, including research on genetic editing that may produce potentially resistant fruit and trees.
An international review led by the University of Queensland and WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) says that many native carnivores that live in and around human habitation are declining at an unprecedented rate – spelling bad news for humans who indirectly rely on them for a variety of beneficial services.
West Virginia University biologist Jonathan Cumming is studying willow and poplar trees by analyzing their differential sensitivity to soils that are left behind after mining.
A scalable, cost-effective greenhouse material in development at CU Boulder splits sunlight into photosynthetically efficient light and repurposes inefficient infrared light to aid in water purification.
Researchers are giving an ancient grain a new life: "Buck" barley is naked, but not in an indecent way. Naked barley does not require pearling, allowing it to hold onto the bran and whole grain status.
A three-year, $675,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to understand cell-size control in the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
A bedding system new to Texas – hügelkultur – is trending among home gardeners looking for low-maintenance ways to grow flowers, fruits and vegetables, said Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service horticulturist Dr. Joe Masabni.
Composting is a great way to reduce waste sent to landfills while benefiting garden soil. The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) January 15 Soils Matter blog post explains the difference between traditional composting and vermicomposting—and how even apartment-dwellers can take part!
A new program uses Landsat satellite data to automatically differentiate land cover into 16 categories in 30-meter resolution— and does so more accurately than other land cover products.
A new study integrating data from around the globe has shown that honey bees are the world’s most important single species of pollinator in natural ecosystems and a key contributor to natural ecosystem functions. The report weaves together information from 80 plant-pollinator interaction networks.
a team of researchers led by Arizona State University and Google has assessed the value of urban agriculture and quantified its benefits at global scale. They report their findings in “A Global Geospatial Ecosystems Services Estimate of Urban Agriculture,” in the current issue of Earth’s Future.
The future of weeding is here, and it comes in the form of a robot. Specialty crops such as lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, and onions may be the first to benefit.
A new method to predict tipping points – the moment at which sudden change occurs in complex networked systems – may offer insights that prevent colony collapse disorder (CCD), a phenomenon in which the majority of worker bees in a colony disappear, threatening the agricultural economy at a global level.
A new modeling approach that combines MODIS and Landsat imagery and analyzes multiple images through the year promises to more accurately track changes in vegetation and land use.
Jan. 10, which is National Cut Your Energy Costs Day, serves as a reminder of how we can reduce those costs. By following some simple suggestions, we can save money on our energy bills by following easy tips, says a University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences expert.
Specific compounds are transformed by and strongly associated with specific bacteria in native biological soil crust (biocrust) using a suite of tools called “exometabolomics.” Understanding how microbial communities in biocrusts adapt to harsh environments could shed light on the roles of soil microbes in the global carbon cycle.
The Eveland laboratory’s research findings, “Brassinosteroids modulate meristem fate and differentiation of unique inflorescence morphology in Setaria viridis”, were recently published in the journal The Plant Cell.
The American Society of Agronomy (ASA) and Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) have created a new, informational blog about sustainability and food security for the general public. Sustainable, Secure Food can be found at https://sustainable-secure-food-blog.com/. The blog will be published twice a month.
“The forest industry is one of the largest agricultural commodity groups in Florida in terms of total economic contributions, similar in size to environmental horticulture,” said Christa Court, a UF/IFAS assistant scientist in food and resource economics and a co-author of the report.
Using satellite imaging and drone reconnaissance, archaeologists from Washington University in St. Louis have discovered an ancient irrigation system that allowed a farming community in arid northwestern China to raise livestock and cultivate crops in one of the world’s driest desert climates.Lost for centuries in the barren foothills of China’s Tian Shan Mountains, the ancient farming community remains hidden in plain sight — appearing little more than an odd scattering of round boulders and sandy ruts when viewed from the ground.
Iowa State's Liang Dong is leading development of graphene-based, sensors-on-tape that can be attached to plants and can provide data to researchers and farmers about water use in crops. The technology could have many other applications.
Laura Reynolds and Carrie Adams will measure their success by plant survival and by how plant establishment changes the environment, whether that’s measured by improved water quality, sediment stabilization or fish use.
UCR study shows how intensive pesticide use is driving mosquito evolution at the genetic level
Understanding dodder’s covert communications weaponry system, which operates much like a computer virus, could provide researchers with a method to engineer parasite-resistant plants.
In the U.S., alfalfa is grown mainly in western and northern states. The cold winters and other factors can lead to losses for farmers and forage shortages. Researchers have identified annual forage crops that can be cultivated in fields with winter-killed or terminated alfalfa.
Grazing animals, such as cattle and sheep, should eat their legumes and brassicas. The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) January 1 Soils Matter blog post explains how a variety of forage grasses benefits these animals as well as the soil and environment.
Boeing, [NYSE: BA] the world's largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners, defense, space and security systems, and service provider of aftermarket support, has provided the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center with a $80,000 grant in support of Green Means Grow, a centerpiece of the Danforth Center’s STEM education and outreach.
Middle Tennessee State University researchers will use the grant to experiment with ginseng. The effort is expected to improve farmers’ income across the state and conserve wild ginseng, which is considered an endangered species, in Tennessee.
Every day, every inch of skin on your body comes into contact with thousands of molecules — from food, cosmetics, sweat, the microbes that call your skin home. Now researchers can create interactive 3D maps that show where each molecule lingers on your body, thanks to a new method developed by University of California San Diego and European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) researchers.
While cognitive abilities naturally decline with age, eating one serving of leafy green vegetables a day may aid in preserving memory and thinking skills as a person grows older, according to a study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. The study results were published in the December 20, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A pan-genome is a valuable resource for unlocking natural diversity. Having plant pan-genomes for crops important for fuel and food applications would enable breeders to harness natural diversity to improve traits such as yield, disease resistance, and tolerance of marginal growing conditions.
Plants don’t sleep like humans do—but just like some people don’t rest well in the heat, some plants don’t either. The canola plant isn’t as productive if the temperature is high at nighttime, and scientists are trying to find out why.
The combined effects of pesticides and a lack of nutrition form a deadly one-two punch for animals, new research shows for the first time. Researchers studied how honey bees fared with exposure to pesticides and limited nutrient sources, scenarios found in agricultural areas.
Data on soils, crop and livestock performance and environmental parameters, such as greenhouse gas emissions, will help convince producers to try cover crops in their rotation plans.
“From what I’ve seen, we’ve got some reasonably tolerant scion/rootstock combinations that growers should be taking a look at as short-term solutions to living with greening until true HLB-resistant trees are developed,” said Michael Rogers, director of the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center.
Tulane University awarded the $1 million grand prize for the Tulane Nitrogen Reduction Challenge to Adapt-N, a team from Cornell University that developed a cloud-based computer modeling system to predict optimum nitrogen application rates for crops using data on weather, field conditions and soil management practices.
Healthy wetlands are hard-working water filters! The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) December 15 Soils Matter blog post explains the role of wetlands—and how we can keep them functioning.
Farmers in the Northeast are adapting to longer growing seasons and warming climate conditions, but they may face spring-planting whiplash as they confront fields increasingly saturated with rain, according to a research paper published in the journal Climatic Change.
Evolutionary bottlenecks brought on by domestication have caused the genome of corn to retain harmful mutations over the course of millennia, according to a new study from an Iowa State University scientist. The study takes a journey through the past by studying genetic changes in corn.
To help untangle fact from speculation, Cornell climate scientists and their colleagues have developed a “robust null hypothesis” to assess the odds of a megadrought – one that lasts more than 30 years – occurring in the western and southwestern United States. The research was published online in the Journal of Climate.
A New Mexico State University professor in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences is conducting research on golden eagles being killed by wind turbines and other human-related factors.
Sweet sorghum is not just for breakfast anymore. Although sorghum is a source for table syrup, scientists see a future in which we convert sorghum to biofuel, rather than relying on fossil fuel.
During its Annual Meeting, the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) announced the addition of five new Council members and the rise of Professor Terje Aven, Ph.D., University of Stavanger, Norway, as the new President of its 2018 Council. Aven succeeds Margaret MacDonell, Ph.D., Argonne National Laboratories, who has completed her term and will continue to serve on the Council as past president. Other officers elected include Katherine McComas, Cornell University as president-elect and Henry Willis, RAND, as treasurer-elect.
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