Seaweed as a Sustainable Source of Raw Materials EU research project with the participation of the University of Hohenheim searches for new, sustainable food additives and packaging materials from seaweeds and seagrasses. Algae (or seaweeds) already serve as a source of raw materials for stabilizers or thickening and gelling agents, such as agar, alginate, and carrageenan. However, research is also increasingly interested in their potential as a carbohydrate source for bioplastic development. These are not only biodegradable, but their properties…
How much can we intensify? A first assessment of the effects of land management on the links between biodiversity, ecosystem functions and ecosystem services. Ecosystem services are crucial for human well-being and they depend on a well-functioning ecosystem and complex interactions among many organisms. However, human activities are resulting in biodiversity loss and changes to ecosystems, which threatens the supply of key services. An international team of 32 scientists, from 22 institutions, led by Dr Maria Felipe-Lucia (UFZ, iDiv) and…
Research team led by University of Göttingen investigates agroforestry systems in Madagascar. The cultivation of vanilla in Madagascar provides a good income for small-holder farmers, but without trees and bushes the plantations can lack biodiversity. Agricultural ecologists from the University of Göttingen, in cooperation with colleagues from the University in Antananarivo (Madagascar), have investigated the interaction between prey and their predators in these cultivated areas. To do this, they experimentally released dummy prey in order to determine the activity of…
The stable fly (Stomoxys calcitrans) is abundantly found worldwide and resembles the common housefly. The biggest difference is that the stable fly has a bayonet-like proboscis for blood sucking. While feeding, these flies can transmit diseases to the host animals, including humans. A Vetmeduni Vienna study has now investigated the extent to which pigs are at risk of disease transmitted by the stable fly. The stable fly is frequently found in animal farms. The blood-sucking insect is anything but harmless,…
Climate change poses a threat to the world’s subsistence crops. Heatwaves, which are likely to intensify according to climate evolution predictions, are generating levels of heat stress that are damaging to agricultural production. Identifying resistant crop varieties is therefore crucial to ensuring people’s food security and farmers’ resilience. To date, many studies have been conducted on varietal improvement, which involves developing and selecting plants with the required characteristics. Few, however, have examined intraspecific diversity, which is defined as the degree…
Agricultural scientists and engineers at the University of Adelaide have identified a potential new tool for screening cereal crops for frost damage. Their research, published this week in the journal Optics Express, has shown they can successfully screen barley plants for frost damage non-destructively with imaging technology using terahertz waves (which lie between the microwave and infrared waves on the electromagnetic spectrum). “Frost is estimated to cost Australian grain growers $360 million in direct and indirect losses every year,” says…
This pest insect uses sugar from its food to prevent the activation of the mustard oil bomb in cruciferous plants. Worldwide dreaded crop pest of hundreds of plant species Whiteflies are a family of sap-sucking insects which feed on the sugar-containing phloem of plants. The silverleaf whitefly Bemisia tabaci is particularly widespread worldwide and is greatly feared as an agricultural pest. Strictly speaking, it is not a single species, but a complex of about two dozen barely distinguishable species. The…
Current practices of the poultry industry have raised ethical and ecological concerns: ethical concerns include the culling of day-old male chicks of egg-laying breeds; ecological concerns include the import of large quantities of soybeans for feedstuff. Now a research team at the University of Göttingen has investigated alternatives such as using a regional protein crop like broad beans (also known as faba or fava beans), and dual-purpose chicken breeds (ie suitable for both meat and egg-laying). They found that using…
UBC researchers say yes Breadfruit is sustainable, environmentally friendly and a high-production crop. A fruit used for centuries in countries around the world is getting the nutritional thumbs-up from a team of British Columbia researchers. Breadfruit, which grows in abundance in tropical and South Pacific countries, has long been a staple in the diet of many people. The fruit can be eaten when ripe, or it can be dried and ground up into a flour and repurposed into many types…
Stripe rust is one of the most destructive wheat diseases in the world, especially in the United States. While the disease can be controlled by chemicals, those may be harmful to humans, animals, and the environment and the application can cost millions of dollars to wheat production. Rather than use chemicals, many farmers would prefer to grow wheat varieties that resist stripe rust and the development of such varieties is a top priority for wheat breeding programs. To help develop…
The forest canopy, the closed vegetation cover consisting of treetops, is rapidly declining according to a research team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna. The team used satellite images, to create the first high-resolution map of canopy openings in Europes forests and reached the conclusion that the canopy of more than 36 million forest areas has been lost over the past 30 years. Rupert Seidl (Professor of Ecosystem…
Research team led by the University of Göttingen investigates influence of ‘greening measures’ on pollinators About one third of the payments received by farmers are linked to specific “greening measures” to promote biodiversity. The cultivation of nitrogen-fixing legumes is very popular. However, these measures have been criticized because the benefits for biodiversity are unclear. Now a team from the University of Göttingen, the Julius Kühn Institute and the Thuenen Institute in Braunschweig has investigated whether the cultivation of the faba…
Sorghum, a common food item in regions of Africa and Asia, has one missing puzzle piece. The missing piece? Protein digestibility, which researchers in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State University are trying to find. “Sorghum is an important food crop grown in Africa,” said Tesfaye Tesso. “It grows well in their climate because it requires less moisture and nutrients than other crops.” Tesso is a researcher at Kansas State University. The biggest flaw of sorghum is how difficult…
In an article recently published in Agricultural & Environmental Letters, a publication of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America…
The interdisciplinary study combining biology and engineering sets down steps towards accelerating the growth of this branch of precision agriculture,…
COVID-19 has only little structural impact on global crop production – this is one of the most important takeaways from the annual agri benchmark Cash Crop…
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