EurekAlert! - Agriculture

Extreme heat, dry summers main cause of tree death in Colorado's subalpine forests

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Colorado at Boulder) Even in the absence of bark beetle outbreaks and wildfire, trees in Colorado subalpine forests are dying at increasing rates from warmer and drier summer conditions, found recent University of Colorado Boulder research.

International collaboration of scientists rewrite the rulebook of flowering plant genetics

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(Botanical Society of America) Scientists around the world are collaborating on a project that is changing the way they trace the evolutionary history of flowering plants. By using new technology allowing them to rapidly retrieve and compare DNA sequences from among any of the 300,000 species of flowering plants, scientists are unraveling the 140-million-year history of the largest group of land plants on Earth and providing a framework to protect vulnerable species and populations into the future.

Juicy past of favorite Okinawan fruit revealed

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University) A genetic analysis of fruit in the mandarin family has unraveled a complex journey from the mountainous region of southern China to the markets of Okinawa, says researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University.

Investing in a sustainable future for our coastal economy

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(UK Research and Innovation) The UK marine economy is worth £48 billion with strong growth in renewable energy and aquaculture. However, the marine environment is under pressure from the triple ocean crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Researchers will investigate how to strengthen the marine economy while protecting ecosystems and communities.

Bio-based coating for wood outperforms traditional synthetic options

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(Aalto University) Researchers at Aalto University have used lignin, a natural polymer abundant in wood and other plant sources, to create a safe, low-cost and high-performing coating for use in construction. As there is a global urge to meet the rising sustainability standards, this new coating has great potential to protect wood, whose use in construction is continually increasing. The new coating is non-toxic, hydrofobic, it retains wood's breathability and natural roughness while being resistant to colour changes and abrasion.

UMass Amherst grad student awarded fellowship for food allergy research

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Massachusetts Amherst) University of Massachusetts Amherst food science Ph.D. candidate Cassandra Suther has received a prestigious predoctoral fellowship of $180,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) to study the effect of norovirus on the development and severity of food allergies.

Blushing plants reveal when fungi are growing in their roots

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Cambridge) Scientists have created plants whose cells and tissues 'blush' with beetroot pigments when they are colonised by fungi that help them take up nutrients from the soil. This is the first time this vital, 400 million year old process has been visualised in real time in full root systems of living plants. Understanding the dynamics of plant colonisation by fungi could help to make food production more sustainable in the future.

The National Academy of Sciences admits IPK scientist Nicolaus von Wirén as member

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research) Great honour for Prof. Dr Nicolaus von Wirén: The National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina has accepted the Head of the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology at the IPK Leibniz Institute as a new member. For Nicolaus von Wirén, this is already the second award within a few months. Only recently he was recognised by the Web of Science as an influential researcher.

Study shows environmental link to herbicide-resistant horseweed

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(Cambridge University Press) Horseweed is a serious threat to both agricultural crops and natural landscapes around the globe. In the U.S., the weed is prolific and able to emerge at any time of the year.

Southeastern US herbaria digitize three million specimens, now freely available online

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(Botanical Society of America) The National Science Foundation recently provided funding to over 100 herbaria across the Southeast U.S. to digitize more than three million plant specimens collected by botanists and naturalists across the country. Researchers tracked the speed and productivity of staff and students who handled the specimens, from the collection drawers to online repositories, to provide institutions with a framework to better determine the time and money needed to digitize remaining collections.

Sharks, lies, and videotape: Scientists document problems with Shark Week

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(Allegheny College) A new analysis by scientists shows that Shark Week, now in its 33rd year on the Discovery Channel, is deeply flawed in ways that undermine its goals, potentially harming both sharks and shark scientists. To document just how pervasive these issues are, a team of researchers performed a content and discourse analysis of more than 200 Shark Week episodes.

$1M NASA grant to improve carbon monitoring in East Africa

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(Cornell University) Cornell University researchers will develop the first high-resolution carbon monitoring system for East Africa that combines "bottom up" ecological modeling with "top down" satellite data, thanks to a three-year, $1 million NASA grant.

Cattle losing adaptations to environment, MU researchers find

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Missouri-Columbia) In a new PLOS Genetics study, researchers have uncovered evidence showing that cattle are losing important environmental adaptations, losses the researchers attribute to a lack of genetic information available to farmers. After examining genetic material stretching back to the 1960s, they identified specific DNA variations associated with adaptations that could one day be used to create DNA tests for cattle -- tests that could tell farmers whether their cattle are suited for one environment or another.

California's carbon mitigation efforts may be thwarted by climate change itself

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(University of California - Irvine) To meet an ambitious goal of carbon neutrality by 2045, California's policymakers are relying in part on forests and shrublands to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, but researchers at the University of California, Irvine warn that future climate change may limit the ecosystem's ability to perform this service.

Eco-friendly plastic from cellulose and water

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Göttingen) Plastics offer many benefits to society and are widely used in our daily life: they are lightweight, cheap and adaptable. However, the production, processing and disposal of plastics pose a major global threat to the environment and human health. However, researchers at the University of Göttingen have now found a sustainable method - "hydrosetting", which uses water at normal conditions - to process and reshape a new type of hydroplastic polymer. The research was published in Nature Sustainability.

New insight on the reproductive evolution of land plants

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier da Universidade NOVA de Lisboa ITQB NOVA) International consortium, including then IGC, now current ITQB NOVA PI and GREEN-IT member Jörg Becker, offers novel insight into the reproductive evolution of land plants, in new study published in Nature Plants.

Informing policy for long-term global food security

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis) More than 820 million people in the world don't have enough to eat, while climate change and increasing competition for land and water are further raising concerns about the future balance between food demand and supply. The results of a new IIASA-led study can be used to benchmark global food security projections and inform policy analysis and public debate on the future of food.

Targeted removals and enhanced monitoring can help manage lionfish in the Mediterranean

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Plymouth) New research by the University of Plymouth represents one of the first studies to examine the effectiveness of targeted lionfish removals from both an ecological and a socio-economic perspective.

Land repair vital for survival

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(Flinders University) Restoration of degraded drylands is urgently needed to mitigate climate change, reverse desertification and secure livelihoods for the two billion people who live there, experts warn in a major new paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Scientists leading the Global Arid Zone Project examined restoration seeding outcomes at 174 sites on six continents, encompassing 594,065 observations of 671 plant species - with the lessons learned important to meeting ambitious future restoration targets.

Drought changes rice root microbiome

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(University of California - Davis) Drought can have a lasting impact on the community of microbes that live in and around roots of rice plants. The results show how plants may more quickly adapt to repeated intermittent drought.

RNA breakthrough creates crops that can grow 50% more potatoes, rice

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Chicago) A new RNA breakthrough is allowing plants to yield dramatically more crops and increase drought tolerance, which could have an impact on food scarcity and production as climate change threatens ecosystems. In initial tests, adding a gene encoding for a protein called FTO to both rice and potato plants increased their yield by 50% in field tests - and the plants grew significantly larger, produced longer root systems and were better able to tolerate drought stress.

'Backpacking' hedgehogs take permanent staycation

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Otago) New University of Otago research has been examining how alpine-based hedgehogs hibernate from a different perspective - their backs.

Study innovates in gluten-free formulations, creating more palatable and nutritious bread

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) Study at the Federal University of São Paulo developed a recipe combining chickpea flour and psyllium, a plant-derived soluble fiber. The product is nourishing and rated highly by consumers in qualitative surveys.

A new model of coral reef health

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation) Scientists have developed a new way to model and map the health of coral reef ecosystems using data collected on the Global Reef Expedition. This innovative method, presented today at the International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS), can determine which natural and anthropogenic factors are most likely to lead to persistently vibrant coral and fish communities. Their findings can help scientists identify the reefs most likely to survive in a changing world.

Traditional Japanese food may hold building blocks of COVID-19 treatments

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 00:00:00 EDT

(Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology) Natto, a fermented soybean dish often served for breakfast in Japan, originated at the turn of the last millennium but may hold an answer to a modern problem: COVID-19, according to a new study based on cell cultures.