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.
The 2009 film “Avatar” created a lush imaginary world, illuminated by magical, glowing plants. Now researchers are starting to bring this spellbinding vision to life to help reduce our dependence on artificial lighting. They report in ACS’ journal Nano Letters a way to infuse plants with the luminescence of fireflies.
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.
As the August 21 eclipse approached, researchers prepared to understand plants' response to light and temperature. The varied results have left the researchers with interesting questions.
The grounds of University House, the official residence of the Bowling Green State University president, include a large, manicured lawn. But behind the green lawn is an equally important but less obviously tended space, a short-grass prairie that the University is carefully returning to its native state.
In sports, sometimes a player has to take one for the team. The same appears to be true in the plant world, where reduced individual growth can benefit the broader community.
Soil microbes work as both decomposers and synthesizers of carbon compounds in soil, offering new answers with impacts to crops and eco-health.
Researchers in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University are leading a multi-year project aimed at bringing malting barley back to New York and helping farmers take advantage of the economic opportunities offered by the crop.
A system known as Citrus Under Protective Screen (CUPS) could be crucial to Florida growers, UF/IFAS researchers say.
Ice storms can wreak havoc on communities. Frozen limbs, dragged down by the weight of the ice, can snap off and fall on cars, homes, and power lines. But scientists aren’t sure how ice storms affect long-term forest health. Researchers are changing that.
A reindeer with a red glowing nose. A heart, two sizes two small, that suddenly grows three sizes. A trip to the past and to the future — all in one night. Researchers dug deep into their reserves of scientific expertise to explain how these inexplicable plot lines in holiday classics just might be (almost) possible:
It’s one thing to offer students fruits and vegetables for school lunch; it’s another for them to actually eat them. Children who attend schools with Farm to School programs eat more fruits and vegetables, new University of Florida research shows.
A team of researchers from Environment Canada and Climate Change Canada and McMaster University have found that fish living downstream from a wastewater treatment plant showed changes to their normal behaviour—ones that made them vulnerable to predators—when exposed to elevated levels of antidepressant drugs in the water.
Cornell University engineering students are creating a state-of-the-art computer model to strategically place trees on highways near residential areas to mitigate pollution particles and improve human health.
The 1,000-page, 21-chapter book begins with the history of plant propagation and then leads into the principles and practices of seed, vegetative and tissue culture propagation.
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have identified a common set of genes that enable different drought-resistant plants to survive in semi-arid conditions, which could play a significant role in bioengineering and creating energy crops that are tolerant to water deficits.
The Giant Sequoya? Nope. The African elephant? Not even close. The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) December 1 Soils Matter blog post shares that the largest land organism is—a fungus!
Efforts to battle an invasive forest pest just got a boost from a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation grant that enables Cornell Botanic Gardens to continue – and expand – its work to conserve hemlock trees
The tool, known as the Strawberry Advisory System (StAS) uses data such as temperature and leaf wetness to tell growers when to spray fungicide to thwart botrytis and anthracnose fruit rots.
Published recently in the peer-reviewed academic journal Nature Communications, the findings show periodically flooded soils may actually lose organic matter at accelerated rates.
A recent discovery by Australian scientists is likely to improve the sustainability of the Australian wine sector and significantly accelerate the breeding of more robust salt-tolerant grapevines.
First domesticated 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East, wheat and barley took vastly different routes to China, with barley switching from a winter to both a winter and summer crop during a thousand-year detour along the southern Tibetan Plateau, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis,
Incorporating a combination of genes from the model plant Arabidopsis may build high levels of resistance to sudden death syndrome in soybeans, according to research from an Iowa State University agronomist. A recently published study points to one gene in particular as a likely candidate to bolster resistance.
University of Florida, citrus growers to celebrate a 100-year partnership.
Pathogens, such as bacteria, viruses or fungi, cause harmful plant disease and often lead to the destruction of agricultural fields. With many possible dispersal methods, it can often be difficult to assess the damage of a pathogen’s impact before it’s too late. At the 70th meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics, Nov. 19-21, researchers from Virginia Tech will present their work on rain drop dispersal mechanisms of rust fungus on wheat plants.
Following the paths of radicals and finding many damaged residues because of incredibly accurate, fast and sensitive mass spectrometry, three Washington University scientists studied the great granddaddy of all photosynthetic organisms — a strain of cyanobacteria — to develop the first experimental map of that organism’s water world.
Molecular-level understanding of cellulose structure reveals why it resists degradation and could lead to cost-effective biofuels.
A tiny aquatic plant called duckweed might be a viable option for remove phosphorus, nitrates, nitrites and even heavy metals from lakes, ponds and slow-moving waterbodies.
Lignocellulose-degrading enzyme complexes could improve biofuel production.
Florida has the most invasive species of any state in the country, and half of the insects, reptiles, arachnids and crustaceans imported into the United States come through Florida ports, University of Florida experts say. So, UF/IFAS has teamed up with government agencies to create a program to teach the public how to identify these insects before they become prolific.
A University of Washington team is trying to make poplar a viable competitor in the biofuels market by testing the production of younger poplar trees that could be harvested more frequently — after only two or three years — instead of the usual 10- to 20-year cycle.
In some parts of Africa, farmers intercrop sorghum – a grain – and peanuts. But they face a major information gap. There hasn’t been much research on optimal levels of fertilizer use for intercropping sorghum and peanuts in these areas. A new study has filled this information gap. Researchers from Niger, Mali, and the United States have developed a method to help farmers determine how much fertilizer to apply when intercropping.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison wanted to know whether the last 100 years of selecting for corn that is acclimated to particular locations has changed its ability to adapt to new or stressful environments. By measuring populations of corn plants planted across North America, they could test how the corn genomes responded to different growing conditions.
A University of Florida professor known for his work in using computer models to predict crop yields has been named to a newly formed global leadership panel for the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Program, also known as AgMIP.
Many factors influence the ability of soil to buffer against temperature changes. Recent research shows both perennial biofuel and cover crops help soils shield against extreme temperatures.
Rural counties continue to rank lowest among counties across the U.S., in terms of health outcomes. A group of national organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National 4-H Council are leading the way to close the rural health gap.
A discovery by Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists in Dallas provides new insights about the biological or circadian clock, how it regulates high water-use efficiency in some plants, and how others, including food plants, might be improved for the same efficiency, possibly to grow in conditions uninhabitable for them today.
Soybean diseases caused by various species of Diaporthe pathogens are on the rise and scientists are identifying the pathogens behind this increase.
About 22,000 years ago, as the ice sheets that consumed much of North America and Europe began retreating, humans started to consume a fruit that today brings joy to millions of wine drinkers around the world: grapes
New research has identified genes that control vitamin E content in maize grain, a finding that could lead to improving the nutritional profile of this staple crop.
Working with an international team of breeders and genome scientists, plant biologists at the University of Georgia have sequenced the genome of garden asparagus as a model for sex chromosome evolution.
Cutting food waste, becoming a food entrepreneur and eating on a budget if you're a foodie. These are just some of the fearless forecasts from UF/IFAS experts, as they predict food trends for 2018.
The discovery has the potential to drastically improve food safety and reduce losses caused by the contamination from the poisonous carcinogen, aflatoxin.
The University of Maryland (UMD) has joined the International Alliance for Phytobiomes Research, both organizations announced today
They account for just three per cent of the Earth’s surface but play a major role in offsetting carbon dioxide emissions – and now a team of scientists led by the universities of Southampton and Utrecht has discovered that the plants that make up peat bogs adapt exceptionally well to climate change.
A $1 million grant will help ISU researchers advance the genetics of corn varieties intended to be grown in organic settings. The project aims to improve the performance of field and sweet corn varieties in conditions unique to organic production systems.
Researchers combined the immune response created by injection of potato virus nanoparticles with doxorubicin to halt melanoma progression in a mouse model. It is the first demonstration of an anti-tumor response using potato virus nanoparticle vaccination—a novel treatment further enhanced with doxorubicin chemotherapy.
Ancient hunter-gatherers began to systemically affect the evolution of crops up to thirty thousand years ago – around ten millennia before experts previously thought – according to new research by the University of Warwick.
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