Fertilizer destroys plant microbiome's ability to protect against disease

A growth chamber packed with tomato plants sprayed with bacteria to simulate different leaf microbiomes and then challenged with a plant pathogen to measure how well the microbiomes protect the plant from disease.

A new study of the role microbial communities play on the leaves of plants suggests that fertilizing crops may make them more susceptible to disease.

Rice with fewer stomata requires less water and is better suited for climate change

Rice

Rice plants engineered to have fewer stomata -- tiny openings used for gas exchange -- are more tolerant to drought and resilient to future climate change, a new study has revealed.

New geometric shape used by nature to pack cells efficiently

embryo 

As an embryo develops, tissues bend into complex three-dimensional shapes that lead to organs.

Aphids manipulate their food

Aphids manipulate their food

who hasn't been bothered by these little insects at one time or another? Why do they reproduce on plants so successfully? These are among the questions that Professor Dr Caroline Müller and her research team are addressing at Bielefeld University's Faculty of Biology.

Soil bugs munch on plastics

Soil bugs

Our world is drowning in a flood of plastic. Eight million tons of plastic end up in the oceans every year. Agricultural soils are also threatened by plastic pollution.

Ancient farmers transformed Amazon and left an enduring legacy on the rainforest

Ancient farmers

Ancient communities transformed the Amazon thousands of years ago, farming in a way which has had a lasting impact on the rainforest, a major new study shows.

Archeological plant remains point to southwest Amazonia as crop domestication center

Archeological plant

Genetic analysis of plant species has long pointed to the lowlands of southwest Amazonia as a key region in the early history of plant domestication in the Americas, but systematic archaeological evidence to support this has been rare.

To keep more carbon on the ground, halting farmland expansion is key

This image shows a high-yield palm oil farm in Ghana.

The conversion of forests to farmland is recognized as a major contributor to rising levels of greenhouse gases. And yet it hasn't been clear how to best minimize the loss of sequestered carbon into the atmosphere.

Climate taxes on agriculture could lead to more food insecurity than climate change itself

Climate 

New IIASA-led research has found that a single climate mitigation scheme applied to all sectors, such as a global carbon tax, could have a serious impact on agriculture and result in far more widespread hunger and food insecurity than the direct impacts of climate change. Smarter, inclusive policies are necessary instead.

Time is running out in the tropics: Researchers warn of global biodiversity collapse

Time is running out in the tropics: Researchers warn of global biodiversity collapse

A global biodiversity collapse is imminent unless we take urgent, concerted action to reverse species loss in the tropics, according to a major scientific study in the journal Nature.