Amidst challenges like a booming global population and diminishing arable land, plant phenotyping offers a way to automate agriculture and improve crop diagnostics. However, translating the precision of controlled-environment phenotyping to field conditions remains a hurdle, particularly in accurately measuring leaf color due to sunlight glare. Existing solutions, ranging from light scattering simulations to 3D sensor fusion, often require complex, time-consuming, or impractical methods. In March 2024, Plant Phenomics published a research article entitled by “Mitigating Illumination-, Leaf-, and View-Angle…

Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have made a significant scientific breakthrough by discovering new yttrium-hydrogen compounds having serious implications for the research on high-pressure superconductivity. High-pressure superconductivity refers to the property of materials to become superconducting, which means conducting electrical current without resistance, when exposed to certain pressure conditions. The comprehensive high-pressure study of the Bayreuth Researchers shedding light on the complex nature of yttrium hydrides under extreme conditions was published in “Science Advances” journal. Several rare-earth superhydrides are…

SLF climatologist Christoph Marty joins us for an interview to explain why it can snow even in mild winters as well as the difference between the winters of 2022/23 and 2023/24, and to take a look into the future. Dr. Christoph Marty is a snow climatologist at the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF in Davos, Switzerland. Luzia Schär, Davos – CC-BY   Mr Marty, in late November and early December there was snow chaos in large parts…

…to outsmart treatments and adapt to new environments. A new study published in PNAS sheds light on how bacterial plant pathogens, like Pseudomonas syringae, rapidly evolve resistance to antibiotics and adapt to changing environments. This is particularly concerning as copper-based antimicrobials are commonly used in agriculture to control these very pathogens. The study reveals a previously unknown mechanism by which these bacteria gain new abilities due to mobile genetic elements called Integrative and Conjugative Elements (ICEs). Researchers identified a new…

Research project “Integrated material, process and product development methodology for product life-cycle optimized mycelium-based packaging products as part of circular economy” (MycelCycle) launches | 1.3 Million Euro Funding from VolkswagenStiftung. Mycelium can help us avoid packaging waste It is easy to spot in mould with the naked eye: the fine mycelial network, which mostly grows hidden in the ground or in biomass. Mycelium possesses properties that can be very useful in avoiding environmentally harmful packaging waste. Scientists from the Universities…

EU-Project FORTUNA: The new European project, coordinated by JKI, points out how agronomic research supports the transformation of agriculture after 2030. The main goal of the EU Farm-to-Fork Strategy is to reduce the overall use and risk of pesticides by 50 per cent by 2030. The Horizon Europe project ‘FORTUNA – Future Innovation for Pesticide Use Reduction in Agriculture’ is a three-year initiative that seeks to identify knowledge gaps and challenges in plant protection beyond 2030, highlighting the need for…

Planting new coral in degraded reefs can lead to rapid recovery – with restored reefs growing as fast as healthy reefs after just four years, new research shows. Reefs worldwide are severely threatened by local and global pressures. In Indonesia, where the study was carried out, destructive blast fishing destroyed large reef areas 30-40 years ago – with no signs of recovery until now. The Mars Coral Reef Restoration Programme attempts to restore degraded reefs by transplanting coral fragments onto…

An international team of researchers has investigated the question of whether the chemical defenses of plants changes when they have established themselves in new geographical regions. Greenhouse experiments with populations of ribwort plantain from different countries and continents showed that introduced ribwort plantain populations exhibited higher chemical defenses when climatic factors of their habitat were taken into account, while their growth was not affected. The results refute common theories and demonstrate how difficult it is to formulate generally valid assumptions…

SLF physicist Lars Mewes is investigating snow crystals’ direction of growth and analysing snow profiles on the Jungfraufirn Glacier. His work is part of a collaboration with other institutions, which the SLF was invited to join because of its expertise on snow. Thin air, peak temperatures of around -10 °C – SLF snow physicist Lars Mewes has swapped his cosy office in Davos for a workplace of extremes this week. Since Monday, he has been at the high-altitude research station…

Having returned from Antarctica, SLF technician Matthias Jaggi talks about new insights into snowpack structure, future work to refine climate models using the samples collected, a personal career highlight – and traffic. Mr Jaggi, what were the main insights you gained during your weeks in Antarctica? It reminded me just how inhomogeneous the snowpack is. The wind has an immense influence on its structure, piling up dunes and creating sloping layers. These aren’t just arranged horizontally, layer upon layer. I’m…

…and submarine cables in the Baltic Sea for Baltic Power Offshore Wind Farm. The Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES has conducted a boulder detection campaign in the Baltic Sea on behalf of Baltic Power for the foundations of the planned wind turbines. It also applied the surveying technology along the planned subsea cable routes for the very first time. The innovative Manta Ray G1 measuring system allows not only the detection of boulders located up to 100 meters…

Innovative Monitoring Concept for the Eckernförde Bay Receives State Funding. Artificial intelligence will help improve the monitoring of the ecological condition of the Eckernförde Bay in the future. The linking and analysis of large data sets enable more precise forecasts and warnings, for example, of impending fish kills. A digital representation of the bay could also make it possible to test hypothetical scenarios and measures to improve the environmental condition in advance. For this innovative project, jointly developed by GEOMAR…

Fabricated ecosystems created at Berkeley Lab will expedite microbiome research, and help underrepresented students in the classroom. A greater understanding of how plants and microbes work together to store vast amounts of atmospheric carbon in the soil will help in the design of better bioenergy crops for the fight against climate change. Deciphering the mechanics of this mutually beneficial relationship is challenging, however, as conditions in nature are extremely difficult for scientists to replicate in the laboratory. To address this…

Process transforms glass fiber-reinforced plastic into silicon carbide. Glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP), a strong and durable composite material, is widely used in everything from aircraft parts to windmill blades. Yet the very qualities that make it robust enough to be used in so many different applications make it difficult to dispose of ⎯ consequently, most GFRP waste is buried in a landfill once it reaches its end of life. According to a study published in Nature Sustainability, Rice University researchers and…

…helps reveal the physics of ice sheet collapse. There’s enough water frozen in Greenland and Antarctic glaciers that if they melted, global seas would rise by many feet. What will happen to these glaciers over the coming decades is the biggest unknown in the future of rising seas, partly because glacier fracture physics is not yet fully understood. A critical question is how warmer oceans might cause glaciers to break apart more quickly. University of Washington researchers have demonstrated the…

The Bayreuth plant ecologists Prof Dr Steven Higgins and Dr Timo Conradi argue in favour of interpreting the coming climatic changes from the perspective of plants in order to better assess the risks of climate change for ecosystems. If information on the physiological reactions of plant species to changing temperatures, soil water content and atmospheric CO2 concentrations is taken into account, the consequences of climate change for ecosystems can be better predicted. They report this in a recent article in…