Improvement of crops with seeds from gene banks Securing plant production is a global task. Using a combination of new molecular and statistical methods, a research team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) was able to show that material from gene banks can be used to improve traits in the maize plant. Old varieties can thus help to breed new varieties adapted to current and future climates. The famous seed vault in Spitsbergen and national gene banks retain hundreds…

Researchers in Japan, the US and China say they have found more concrete evidence of the volcanic cause of the largest mass extinction of life. Their research looked at two discrete eruption events: one that was previously unknown to researchers, and the other that resulted in large swaths of terrestrial and marine life going extinct. There have been five mass extinctions since the divergent evolution of early animals 450 – 600 million years ago. The third was the largest one…

Among the most damaging natural hazards, earthquakes are still today one of the least understood phenomena in Earth Sciences. Earthquakes happen when rocks on either side of a tectonic fault slide. The sliding, however, does not occur along the whole fault at once but starts at one point, the hypocenter, and then spreads over the entire fault at a speed known as the “rupture speed” of the earthquake. Geophysicists are particularly interested in rupture speeds because the faster they are,…

A new method shows that it’s now possible to estimate the volume of magma stored below volcanoes providing essential information about the potential size of future eruptions. Most active volcanoes on Earth are dormant, meaning that they have not erupted for hundreds or even thousands of years, and are normally not considered hazardous by the local population. A team of volcanologists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), working in collaboration with the University of Heidelberg in Germany, has devised a…

Demand for mycorrhizal fungi in gardening and landscaping tasks is steadily climbing, given its ability to boost growth and yield as a natural fertilizer. In a successful first, scientists from the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry (IPB), partnered the INOQ GmbH and the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) to develop a mycorrhiza substrate for commercial tomato production. Large-scale trials revealed that the fruit crop of mycorrhizal plants outperformed non-mycorrhizal control plants in terms of quality…

A team of researchers from Empa and Imperial College London developed drones that can attach sensors to trees to monitor environmental and ecological changes in forests. Sensors for forest monitoring are already used to track changes in temperature, humidity and light, as well as the movements of animals and insects through their habitats. They also help to detect and monitor forest fires and can provide valuable data on how climate change and other human activities are affecting the natural world….

A two-volume atlas presents and explains the impact sites of meteorites and asteroids worldwide Prof. Dr. Thomas Kenkmann, geologist from the University of Freiburg’s Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, together with mineralogist Prof. Dr. Wolf Uwe Reimold from the University of Brasilia, Brazil, and Dr. Manfred Gottwald from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) published an atlas providing a comprehensive overview of all known impact craters on every continent. The authors present the more than 200 terrestrial impact sites in…

Heidelberg scientists study glacial lake outburst flood in the Himalaya Researchers from the South Asia Institute and the Heidelberg Center for the Environment of Ruperto Carola investigated the causes of a glacial lake outburst with subsequent flooding in the Ladakh region of India. In order to frame the case study in a larger picture, the research team led by geographer Prof. Dr Marcus Nüsser used satellite images to create a comprehensive survey of glacial lakes for the entire Trans-Himalyan region…

Coral reefs under high levels of human influence react unpredictably to environmental stress. This was discovered by an international team of reef researchers led by the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) using a comprehensive data set of over 60 reef sites in the South Pacific. This finding is of fundamental importance for the conservation and management of coral reefs. Physical stress factors associated with climate change, such as frequent and violent storms or warming of the oceans, can…

A research team from Vetmeduni Vienna proved for the first time that the fitness costs of insecticide resistance mutations of the ACE locus is significantly influenced by ambient temperature: at higher temperature the fitness costs of the resistance mutations are substantially lower than in cold environments. Such temperature-dependent fitness effects are important for insecticide resistance management strategies-in particular in the light of the current climate change. Many insects, especially mosquitoes, are a widespread plague and therefore insecticides are widely used…

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…

Research presented at the 2020 GSA Annual Meeting. If you’ve visited the beach recently, you might think sand is ubiquitous. But in construction uses, the perfect sand and gravel is not always an easy resource to come by. “Not all sand is equal in terms of what it can be used for,” notes Zack Sickman, coauthor of a new study to be presented on Thursday at the Geological Society of America annual meeting. He says concrete aggregate needs sand with…

Climate change is leaving its mark on the bog complexes of the German Black Forest. Due to rising temperatures and longer dry periods, two plant species have already gone extinct over the last 40 years. The populations of many others have decreased by one third. In the next couple of decades ten more species could become extinct, researchers from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) write in “Diversity and Distributions”. There are…

EU project CONFER started – precipitation forecasts reduce the impacts of droughts and floods in East Africa. Developing more precise seasonal forecasts to improve food supply for a total of 365 million people in eleven countries in East Africa, this is the goal of the new CONFER project funded by the EU. In particular, more precise precipitation forecasts are deemed important to increase agricultural yields. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is one of nine partners of this international project that…

Presentation at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America. Microplastics (plastics <5mm) and their negative health impacts have been studied in oceans, rivers, and even soils, and scientists are beginning to grapple with the myriad human health impacts their presence might have. One understudied, but critical, link in the cycle is groundwater, which is often a source of drinking water. While microplastics in groundwater likely affect human health, only a handful of studies have examined the abundance…

Research presented at the 2020 GSA Annual Meeting Floating gardens sound so idyllic. Now, a study proves that they are more than just a pretty place. The study, by researchers at Illinois State University, demonstrates that such constructed gardens can have a measurable, positive impact on water quality. Floating gardens are essentially rafts built on a frame of plastic caging, wrapped in coconut husks, and filled in with native plantings. As plants grow, they extend their roots into the water,…