A new strain of kelp can help support sustainable farming Like most aquatic vegetation, kelp is being negatively impacted by climate change. Warming ocean temperatures have led to shorter growing and harvesting seasons, including for sugar kelp, one of the most commonly farmed kelp species. The loss of kelp populations can significantly impact ecosystems, and potentially the growing demand for sustainably farming food, feed, fertilizer, medicine, and cosmetics. To give kelp a chance against climate change, scientists from the Woods…
Many U.S. forests are privately owned, particularly in the Eastern and North Central part of the country. This makes control of invasive plants and pests challenging because efforts must be coordinated across landowners. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explores how differences in ownership motivation affects willingness to control, and how economic incentives can be implemented most efficiently. “Some own the land for recreational purposes, some own it because they want to produce timber, and some are…
Wajarri artist, Judith Anaru, painted a fast radio burst as part of a series commissioned by CSIRO to celebrate the research being undertaken with CSIRO’s ASKAP radio telescope on Wajarri Country. Image Credit: Judith Anaru, CRAFT, 2019 The first trial of an Australian-developed technology has detected mysterious objects by sifting through signals from space like sand on a beach. The first trial of an Australian-developed technology has detected mysterious objects by sifting through signals from space like sand on a…
Research with smallholder farmers in Kenya shows that tree-planting schemes must account for complex local issues and preferences. Tree planting is central to many countries’ climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation goals, and Kenya alone plans to plant 15 billion trees by 2032. Adding trees and shrubs to farmland (called agroforestry) can boost biodiversity, carbon storage, soil health, food production and income. But many tree-planting schemes overlook diversity and promote a narrow range of species. The new study – led by…
On the morning of December 26, 1999, the winter storm “Lothar” swept across Switzerland, knocking down around 14 million cubic meters of wood, three times the annual logging volume. WSL experts answer numerous questions about how the forest is doing 25 years later. Citations: “Lothar showed us the damage that extreme events can cause. In the Swiss Plateau, the extent of the damage was unprecedented. Today we would say, ‘inconceivable’.” Thomas Wohlgemuth, disturbance ecologist at WSL “A windthrow event shakes…
The humus content of soils is one of the most important indicators of soil fertility. Detecting humus changes by sampling soils is very time-consuming and expensive. A new method enables the direct observation of humus changes with satellite images. Posing a threat to soil fertility and sustainable farming, the humus stock of agricultural soils in Germany is declining. Researchers from the Thünen Institute of Farm Economics have achieved a groundbreaking milestone by demonstrating that changes in humus content can be…
With growing concerns over climate change and overpopulation, we urgently need to boost agricultural productivity. With the goal of creating a way to easily tell whether a plant is thriving or dying, a leaf-mounted sensor was created by researchers at Tohoku University. This small but mighty technology could help improve crop yields and resource management in order to meet ever-growing demands. Extreme weather events like heatwaves, heavy rain, and droughts stress plants, which can reduce crop yields and threaten the…
New approaches in the fight against bacterial rice disease. An international research team, the “Healthy Crops” consortium, has developed rice varieties resistant to a detrimental crop disease in East Africa and Madagascar. The new varieties are resistant to bacterial leaf blight (for short: BB), caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo). The intention is to transfer these varieties to local breeders in Madagascar and Tanzania, where they will first be subjected to field tests and subsequently distributed to…
EIP Project “BioStripPlant” Successfully Concludes. On Thursday, 28 November 2024, the Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ) hosted the final event of the “BioStripPlant” project. Funded by the European Innovation Partnership (EIP-Agri) and coordinated by agrathaer GmbH, the project aimed to develop and test an innovative cultivation method for organic vegetable farming in Brandenburg. Over three years, the project explored how strip-tillage combined with mulch and live mulch systems could enhance soil conservation and climate resilience. The results…
Plant biologists show how two genes work together to trigger embryo formation in rice. Rice is a staple food crop for more than half the world’s population, but most farmers don’t grow high-yielding varieties because the seeds are too expensive. Researchers from the University of California’s Davis and Berkeley campuses have identified a potential solution: activating two genes in rice egg cells that trigger their development into embryos without the need for fertilization, which would efficiently create high-yielding clonal strains…
A new study shows that increasing plant diversity in agriculture can be used to improve the carbon sequestration potential of agricultural soils. As the agricultural sector strives to reduce its carbon footprint, promoting biodiversity in agricultural practices could be the key to more sustainable and climate-friendly food production systems. As agricultural expansion and intensive farming practices continues to degrade soils and release carbon into the atmosphere, finding ways to enhance soil carbon storage is critical. Given that over 40% of…
Plants can extract even the smallest traces of the important nutrient potassium from the soil. A team led by Würzburg biophysicist Rainer Hedrich describes how they achieve this in ‘Nature Communications’. Potassium is one of the nutrients that plants need in large quantities. However, the amount of potassium in the soil can vary greatly: potassium-poor soils can contain up to a thousand times less of this nutrient than potassium-rich soils. To be able to react flexibly to these differences, plants…
Despite being widely popular, moths are not always welcome in forests, parks and gardens. Some moth species constitute a real threat to forests when they appear en masse. In the past, they have stripped entire deciduous and coniferous stands bare in many places in Germany. Forest pest monitoring is consequently particularly important to track their reproduction and to protect forests from greater damage. Research scientist from the Fraunhofer IFF are developing a digital, automated pheromone trap together with the Nordwestdeutsche…
Mizzou plant geneticist Ron Mittler is finding ways to breed soybean crops that can handle heat, drought and water-logging stresses, improving yields under pressure. Ron Mittler is on a quest to create a smarter soybean. For years, mid-Missouri has withstood unpredictable weather patterns, including drought, heat waves and flooding — conditions that are known to hamper agricultural yields and make it difficult for farmers to produce. While we can’t control the weather, Mittler and his team are working to harness…
In the agricultural and food industry, determining the chemical composition of raw materials is important for production efficiency, application, and price. Traditional laboratory testing is time-consuming, complicated, and expensive. New research from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign demonstrates that near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and machine learning can provide quick, accurate, and cost-effective product analysis. In two studies, the researchers explore the use of NIR spectroscopy for analyzing characteristics of corn kernels and sorghum biomass. “NIR spectroscopy has many advantages over traditional…
Through international teamwork, scientists’ on-site weed resistance diagnosis boosts knowledge exchange and sustainable agriculture. Dr. Ulrich Lutz with Arvind Ramburn from the Parmessur team, during a training session in the lab of the Biotechnology department of the MSIRI. (c) Ulrich Lutz A collaborative effort between Dr. Ulrich Lutz from the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen and Dr. Yogesh Parmessur from the Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute (MSIRI) has led to a significant breakthrough in combating herbicide-resistant weeds that are…
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