In a first of its kind comparison, UC San Diego scientists have shown that pollination by honey bees, which are not native to the Americas, produces offspring of considerably inferior quality (lower fitness) than offspring resulting from native pollinators.
The Department of Defense Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) has awarded Northern Arizona University a grant upwards of $1 million to support a five-year research project aimed at understanding the impact of invasive species on threatened and endangered (T&E) plants.
A new study investigated the role of the genes in individual switchgrass plants in determining the composition of the bacterial communities associated with the plants’ roots.
The recent tragic loss of the Titan submersible in the depths of the North Atlantic has brought the fascinating (and very dangerous) world of Oceanography and Marine Science to the forefront. Below are some recent stories that have been added to the Marine Science channel on Newswise, including expert commentary on the Titan submersible.
Multiflora rose may sound like a bountiful variant of the classic flowering bush, but its unexpected white blooms and red berries conceal one of Mother Nature’s sinister surprises: The invasive shrub is a thorny foe that threatens native plants in more than 40 states, including West Virginia and neighboring Pennsylvania.
A group of RIPE researchers have found, for the first time, that chloroplast size manipulations are unlikely to be an option for increasing crop photosynthetic efficiency. Their work was recently published in New Phytologist.
A University of California, Irvine-led team of researchers have discovered that extracts from plants used by the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nations peoples in their traditional botanical medicine practices are able to rescue the function of ion channel proteins carrying mutations that cause human Episodic Ataxia.
For the first time, researchers have developed a genome-scale way to map the regulatory role of transcription factors, proteins that play a key role in gene expression and determining a plant’s physiological traits. Their work reveals unprecedented insights into gene regulatory networks and identifies a new library of DNA parts that can be used to optimize plants for bioenergy and agriculture.
Current farming practices disrupt soil, release carbon into atmosphere
Green Bronx Machine will welcome Con Edison, community members, local officials, students, parents, and guests from Google to tour the newly-reopened Con Edison Claremont Village Community Garden at CS55.
People rely on sight to identify weeds but ants grow fungus underground in the dark and must have other ways to sense undesirable garden denizens. A team led by Jonathan Klassen, Ph.D., at the University of Connecticut and Marcy Balunas, Ph.D., at the University of Michigan has found that the ants sniff out diseased fungus by detecting chemicals called peptaibols.
Leaf arrangements in the earliest plants differ from most modern plants, overturning a long-held theory regarding the origins of a famous mathematical pattern found in nature, research shows.
A new study published in the CABI Agriculture and Bioscience journal has revealed a willingness of smallholder papaya farmers in Kenya to reduce their chemical pesticide use to fight the papaya mealybug (Paracoccus marginatus).
New research looks at how crop production shocks – sudden crop declines – are affected by variations in planted and harvested areas. The research shows climate extremes explain a substantial portion of these shocks and that strategic crop planting can be an important form of climate adaptation.
As the world heats up due to climate change, how much can we continue to depend on plants and soils to help alleviate some of our self-inflicted damage by removing carbon pollution from the atmosphere?
As we enter the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere and the possibility of extreme heat becomes more common, it’s important to stay up-to-date on the science of heat waves and take measures to protect ourselves from this growing public health threat.
Many people study photosynthesis in plant leaves, but since the pods and immature seeds (edamame) of soybean plants are also green, they are receiving chlorophyll and should be studied as well. Researchers with the RIPE Project discovered that chlorophyll in soybean pods plays a vital role in the plant’s photosynthetic process and significantly contributes to soybean yield.
In a recent article published in the journal Nature Communications, Binghamton University Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Adam Session and Daniel S. Rokhsar, a professor of genetics, evolution and development at the University of California, Berkeley, outline a way to trace these genomes back to the polypoid hybrid’s parent species.
Paleobotanist Mario Coiro of the Institute of Paleontology at the University of Vienna and colleagues at the University of Montpellier (France) have made an important breakthrough in understanding the origin and geographic distribution of cycads. By combining genetic data with leaf morphological data from both fossil and living species for the first time, the researchers created a phylogenetic tree of these fascinating and endangered plants. The results of the study, which was funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, have now been published in the journal New Phytologist.
For several years, ecological research has argued that climate often has no determining influence on the distribution of forests and savannas in tropical regions. However, an international research team led by Prof. Dr. Steven Higgins at the University of Bayreuth has now succeeded in proving that it depends mostly on climatic factors whether regions in Africa are covered by forest or savanna. The study, published in "Science", thus confirms the dominant role of climate in the formation of global vegetation patterns.
In a study published in Nature Communications, scientists assess a new technique which could convert renewable, green energy from outside the Earth’s atmosphere. They are taking advantage of photosynthesis – the chemical process plants undergo every day to create energy – to help the space industry become more sustainable.
Scientists at Brookhaven Lab have determined the atomic-level structure of a zinc-transporter protein, a molecular machine that regulates levels of this crucial trace metal micronutrient inside cells. The structure reveals how the cellular membrane protein shifts its shape to move zinc from the environment into a cell, and temporarily blocks this action automatically when zinc levels inside the cell get too high.
Plant biologist James O’Dwyer and graduate student Kenneth Jops report in Nature the development of a method that reliably predicts the complementary life histories of pairs of plants that manage to thrive while competing for many of the same resources.
Scientists showed that chemical compounds of perennial plant meadowsweet are distributed unevenly. They found out that in new leaves chemically active compounds are stored, and in the old ones – predecessors of polymers that don’t take part in any chemical reactions.
Especially after the last few COVID-affected years, nobody doubts that emerging infectious diseases can threaten the whole world. But humans are not the only ones at risk! With intensive global trade, many tree parasites are accidently introduced to Europe in packaging or directly on goods. Traveling in the wood, on plants or in the soil of their pots, they can remain undetected for a long time.
In collaboration with researchers at Purdue and Hamline Universities, Ivan Baxter, PhD, member, at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center will lead a four-year, $2.5 million project to expand scientific understanding of the genetic processes that allow plants to absorb and make use of elements.
Defense of the United States is an undertaking that requires the help of experts from a wide array of obviously related disciplines — physics, engineering, computer science, political science and more. One discipline that might not immediately come to mind is plant ecophysiology. But the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Tala Awada is leading the way.
Night-time pollinators such as moths may visit just as many plants as bees, and should also be the focus of conservation and protection efforts, a new study from the University of Sheffield suggests.
An innovative and sustainable chemistry developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory for capturing carbon dioxide from air has been licensed to Holocene, a Knoxville-based startup focused on designing and building plants that remove carbon dioxide from atmospheric air.
Nature-based solutions are an effective tool to combat climate change triggered by rising carbon emissions, whether it’s by clearing the skies with bio-based aviation fuels or boosting natural carbon sinks. At the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, scientists are leading research to transform plants into key drivers of decarbonization, from creating biomass crops for new fuels to enhancing the ability of plants to absorb and store carbon.
Even without nerves, plants can sense when something touches them and when it lets go, a Washington State University-led study has found.
Malia Gehan, PhD, assistant member, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, was selected to be part of the Taylor Geospatial Institute’s inaugural class of TGI Fellows. The program enables TGI member institutions to recruit and retain distinguished researchers in geospatial science fields, develop the next generation of scientific leaders and catalyze collaboration to accelerate the region’s development as a global geospatial center of excellence.
Applying imaging technology to plant roots, researchers have developed a new understanding of chemicals that are responsible for plant growth. The chemical “roadmap” identifies where key molecules are distributed along corn roots and how their placement factors into the plant’s maturation.
Plants live across wide ranges of heat and cold and rain and drought, but they don’t fill their niches alone. Along with the animals and insects that live on and around a tree — pitching in now and then to aid pollination or pest control or seed dispersal — there are innumerable microbes in the soil (like various fungi that grow alongside tree roots). These microbes can blunt the normal stresses of life by helping trees draw in more nutrients and water or influencing the time they leaf out or flower to best match seasonal conditions.
A research team at the University of Cordoba has identified, for the first time, the composition of a Roman perfume more than 2,000 years old thanks tothe discovery of a small vessel of ointment in Carmona.
Though prescribed burns reduce wildfire threats and even improve habitat for some animals, new research shows these fires also spread stinknet, an aptly named weed currently invading superblooms across the Southwestern U.S.
The grounds of the University of Northern Colorado received a welcome living, breathing facelift last week. As part of Arbor Day and Earth Day celebrations this year, students, faculty and staff picked up shovels and got their hands dirty planting 122 new trees across the university’s 250-acre campus.
Droughts can be good for trees. Certain trees, that is. Contrary to expectation, sometimes a record-breaking drought can increase tree growth. Why and where this happens is the subject of a new paper in Global Change Biology.
A new study has identified the bee’s knees of bumble bee dietary options in Ohio and the Upper Midwest. Researchers found these bees don’t settle for the most abundant flowers in their foraging area – suggesting they have more discerning dietary preferences than one might expect.
Humidity is as important as scent in attracting pollinators to a plant, new Cornell-led research finds, advancing basic biology and opening new avenues to support agriculture.
A movement is raising awareness of native gromwell plant's importance in preserving Japanese culture. For example, revival projects currently underway throughout Japan are investigating the seed's origins and educating the public on the importance of protecting the plant's homogeneity. Purple gromwell contains shikonin derivatives in the plant's root surfaces, which are red naphthoquinones. This natural pigment and medicinal properties are linked to ancient East Asian traditions.
Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) during the Academy’s annual meeting May 2.
A team from the University of Illinois has quantified the plant cell properties in two C4 species, including cell shape, chloroplast size, and distribution of cell-to-cell connections called plasmodesmata, providing information that can change how people model photosynthesis thanks to their 3D reconstructions.
The intricate process of flower development has long fascinated scientists seeking to unravel the mysteries behind nature's precision timing.
Tomatoes, bananas, cabbages, melons, pumpkins and cucumbers… are just some of the 150 crops of commercial interest that are victims of Fusarium oxysporum, one of the most important pathogens in the world due to the millions of dollars in losses it is responsible for and its ability to attack different types of plants.
Eight years ago, University of Illinois and USDA-ARS scientists turned weed control on its head. More and more herbicide resistant weeds were popping up, and the pest plants were getting harder to kill. It was clear farmers could no longer rely on the same chemicals year after year. Industry campaigns and herbicide applicators began touting the benefits of rotating herbicides annually to avoid developing resistance, and rotation quickly became common practice.
Walking along a steep ridge, under large hemlock trees, ten miles outside of Burlington, Vermont—Bill Keeton is worrying about Europe’s remaining old forests. He’s so concerned, in fact, that he and some colleagues wrote a letter to the journal Science—published on May 5, 2023—calling for rapid action to protect them.
Let’s say you’re a corn grower farming on low-fertility soil. How do you go about making that soil healthier and more fertile? Many farmers think if they add plenty of nitrogen fertilizer, that nutrient, along with carbon, will be stored in the soil as organic matter when microbes decompose crop residue. But new research from the University of Illinois suggests those efforts might not work for poor soils.
Spread across 106 acres in southcentral Utah, the Pando aspen grove resembles a forest but is actually a single organism with more than 47,000 genetically identical aspen stems connected at the root. As an artist-in-residence for the nonprofit group Friends of Pando, Jeff Rice used a variety of microphones to record Pando’s leaves, birds, and weather. As part of the 184th ASA Meeting, Rice and Lance Oditt will describe their work to reveal a unique acoustic portrait of this botanical wonder.
Small-scale wildlife surveys can reveal the health of entire ecosystems, new research shows.
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