Road verges cover 1.2% of land in Great Britain – an area the size of Dorset – and could be managed to help wildlife, new research shows.
Tag: PLANT SCIENCES
Road verges provide opportunity for wildflowers, bees and trees
Road verges cover 1.2% of land in Great Britain – an area the size of Dorset – and could be managed to help wildlife, new research shows. University of Exeter researchers used Google Earth and Google Street View to estimate…
Dimensions of invasion success
Invasive alien plants are plant species that grow in an environment outside their native habitat. If they successfully establish self-sustaining populations in these new environments – an event called “naturalization” – they can have considerable negative impacts on local ecosystems,…
Scientists discover a protein that naturally enhances wheat resistance to head scab
Fusarium Head Blight (FHB), also known as scab, is a significant disease of small grain cereals, such as wheat and barley, that impacts farmers around the world. The disease has been reducing acreage and increasing the price of wheat production…
Grass replaces plastic in take-away food packaging
Soon, packaging for take-away foods might be completely based on local, sustainable materials instead of fossil-based products. In a new research project, a packaging solution based on upcycled grass fibres is being developed.
Made in the shade or fun in the sun
New insights into how phytochromes help plants sense and react to light, temperature
Virus infection cycle revealed in dynamic detail
A critical process in the infection cycle of viruses has been revealed for the first time in dynamic detail using pioneering plant-based technology. Evidence about the process of virus maturation revealed in the research could help us develop new methods…
Oregon State University research shows two invasive beachgrasses are hybridizing
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Two species of sand-stabilizing beachgrasses introduced to the Pacific Northwest starting in the early 1900s are hybridizing, raising new questions about impacts to the coastal ecosystems the non-native plants have been engineering for more than a century.…
Innovative Food Systems Solutions portal launch: Healthy diets for all on a healthy planet
Explore and contribute to the IFSS portal and connect to the global community working to ensure sustainable and resilient food systems that provide affordable, safe and nutritious diets for the growing global population on a healthy planet.
Rubisco proton production can enhance CO2 acquisition
Rubisco is arguably the most abundant–and most important–protein on Earth. This enzyme drives photosynthesis, the process that plants use to convert sunlight into energy to fuel crop growth and yield. Rubisco’s role is to capture and fix carbon dioxide (CO…
Cannabis-related exposures reported to US poison centers
What The Study Did: Researchers examined changes in reports to poison control centers from 2017 to 2019 of exposures to manufactured cannabis products and plant materials. Authors: Julia A. Dilley, Ph.D., of the Oregon Public Health Division in Portland, is…
Plant-microbe homeostasis: A delicate balancing act
Plants grown in soil are colonized by diverse microbes collectively known as the plant microbiota, which is essential for optimal plant growth in nature and protects the plant host from the harmful effects of pathogenic microorganisms and insects. However, in…
Study: Fluorescent light clarifies relationship between heat stress and crop yield
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists report that it is possible to detect and predict heat damage in crops by measuring the fluorescent light signature of plant leaves experiencing heat stress. If collected via satellite, this fluorescent signal could support widespread monitoring…
Ancient discovery could help us develop more disease resistant watermelons
An ancient melon which is the closest relative and potential ancestor of the watermelon, has been discovered by scientists. A team of scientists led by Dr Guillaume Chomicki, from the University of Sheffield, has discovered the potential progenitor of the…
A seedy slice of history: Watermelons actually came from northeast Africa
Just in time for picnic-table trivia, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences rewrites the origins of domesticated watermelons. Using DNA from greenhouse-grown plants representing all species and hundreds of varieties of watermelon, scientists…
Preventing the spread of plant pandemics
New tools needed to curb threats to global food security
First-of-its-kind flower smells like dead insects to imprison ‘coffin flies’
First plant found to deceive pollinators by mimicking decomposing insects
How plants leave behind their parents’ genomic baggage
Passing down a healthy genome is a critical part of creating viable offspring. But what happens when you have harmful modifications in your genome that you don’t want to pass down? Baby plants have evolved a method to wipe the…
New smartphone app predicts vineyard yields earlier, more accurately
ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell University engineers and plant scientists have teamed up to develop a low-cost system that allows grape growers to predict their yields much earlier in the season and more accurately than costly traditional methods. The new method…
Earth’s vegetation is changing faster today than it has over the last 18,000 years
MADISON – A global survey of fossil pollen has discovered that the planet’s vegetation is changing at least as quickly today as it did when the last ice sheets retreated around 10,000 years ago. Beginning some 3,000-to-4,000 years ago, Earth’s…
An illuminating possibility for stroke treatment: Nano-photosynthesis
Blocked blood vessels in the brains of stroke patients prevent oxygen-rich blood from getting to cells, causing severe damage. Plants and some microbes produce oxygen through photosynthesis. What if there was a way to make photosynthesis happen in the brains…
We’ve got the dirt on soil protists
The diverse collection of microbes known as protists are understudied, but their impact on ecosystems could be huge
European cowslip observations are in full swing
Citizen science initiative “Looking for Cowslips” has started successfully. This spring, everybody can take part in the largest cowslip observation campaign in Europe and contribute to science. The aim of the campaign is to collect as much data as possible…
Plant consumers play unexpectedly large role in the evolution of seedling success
Influence of herbivores likely counteracts earlier plant emergence due to climate change
Combatting climate change with carbon farming
Scientists, governments and corporations worldwide are racing against the clock to fight climate change, and part of the solution might be in our soil. By adding carbon from the atmosphere to depleted soil, farmers can both increase their yields and…
Long search finds grain of hope in the glume
Researchers have found the elusive genetic element controlling the elongated grains and glumes of a wheat variety identified by the renowned botanist Carl Linnaeus more than 250 years ago. The findings relating to Polish wheat, Triticum polonicum, could translate into…
Tree species diversity is no protection against bark beetle infestation
In recent years, foresters have been able to observe it up close: First, prolonged drought weakens the trees, then bark beetles and other pests attack. While healthy trees keep the invaders away with resin, stressed ones are virtually defenseless. Freiburg…
‘Postcode lottery’ of nutrient intake from crops revealed in new study
The amount of nutrients people get from the crops that they eat is a type of ‘postcode lottery’, according to new research that has analysed thousands of cereal grains and soils as part of a project to tackle hidden hunger…
Swiss farmers contributed to the domestication of the opium poppy
Fields of opium poppies once bloomed where the Zurich Opera House underground garage now stands. Through a new analysis of archaeological seeds, researchers at the University of Basel have been able to bolster the hypothesis that prehistoric farmers throughout the…
Mapping the Midwest’s soil topography
AMES, Iowa – Climate change and soil erosion feed into one another in an environmental feedback loop that can have big consequences for Iowa land, but an Iowa State University agronomist is developing new models to illuminate these complex interactions.…
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance study finds topography is key factor in where Andean bears mothers make their dens
New findings about critical resources needed for this vulnerable species could help bears thrive near people
Discovery increases likelihood of growing food despite drought
Genes to keep plants green
Turn problems into opportunities: Photorespiration for improved plant metabolism
Researchers from the EU-funded Gain4Crops project have now succeeded in engineering a solution that connects photorespiration and C4 metabolism, two of the main targets in plant metabolism.
How cooperative root graft networks help trees under stress
The fact that the roots of trees of the same or even different species grow together and thus connect to form networks is not new. However, the exact significance of this for forest ecology is still largely unknown. The research…
Lichens slow to return after wildfire
Lichen communities may take decades — and in some cases up to a century — to fully return to chaparral ecosystems after wildfire, finds a study from the University of California, Davis, and Stanford University.
Study finds pretty plants hog research and conservation limelight
New Curtin University research has found a bias among scientists toward colourful and visually striking plants, means they are more likely to be chosen for scientific study and benefit from subsequent conservation efforts, regardless of their ecological importance.
Mangroves and seagrasses absorb microplastics
Mangroves and seagrasses grow in many places along the coasts of the world, and these ‘blue forests’ constitute an important environment for a large number of animals. Here, juvenile fish can hide until they are big enough to take care…
Soybean cyst nematode is the most damaging soybean pathogen–and it’s rapidly spreading
The soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is the most damaging pathogen of soybean in the United States and Canada and it is spreading rapidly, according to information compiled by Gregory Tylka and Christopher Marett, nematologists at Iowa State University. SCN was…
Without commuter traffic, pandemic-era drivers are speeding up, increasing noise pollution
BU ecologists say higher sound levels in Boston’s Blue Hills Reservation could disrupt wildlife and human health benefits of nature recreation
Citrus derivative makes transparent wood 100 percent renewable
Since it was first introduced in 2016, transparent wood has been developed by researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology as an innovative structural material for building construction. It lets natural light through and can even store thermal energy. The…
One step closer to efficient cannabis production
Bringing a technique that has been a boon to other plants to the budding cannabis industry
Oceans’ microscopic plants — diatoms — capture carbon dioxide via biophysical pathways
Diatoms are tiny unicellular plants — no bigger than half a millimeter — which inhabit the surface water of the world’s oceans where sunlight penetration is plenty. Despite their modest size, they are one of the world’s most powerful resources…
Less precipitation means less plant diversity
Climate change might lead to changes in plant diversity, especially in the world’s drylands
How plants find their symbiotic partners
What would it be like to produce fertilizer in your own basement? Leguminous plants, like peas, beans, and various species of clover, obtain the organic nitrogen they need for their growth from symbiotic soil bacteria via specialized structures in their…
Unraveling a mystery of dinoflagellate genomic architecture
Algal species vital to coral reef health could help elucidate the genomic organizational principles of all organisms
NYUAD study sequences genome of extinct date palms germinated from 2,000 year-old seeds
This study marks the first time researchers have sequenced the genomes of plants from ancient germinated seeds
Solar development: super bloom or super bust for desert species?
Rare desert plants more sensitive to solar development
GM grass cleanses soil of toxic pollutants left by military explosives, new study shows
Genetically modified grass cleanses soil of toxic pollutants left by military explosives, new research shows
Brazilian Amazon released more carbon than it stored in 2010s
The Brazilian Amazon rainforest released more carbon than it stored over the last decade – with degradation a bigger cause than deforestation – according to new research.
Cary Institute’s Steward Pickett elected to the National Academy of Sciences
Prestigious honor recognizes Pickett’s contributions advancing the field of ecology