In any single location, there are typically more earthworms and more earthworm species found in temperate regions than in the tropics. Global climate change could lead to significant shifts in earthworm communities worldwide, threatening the many functions they provide.
Read moreThe native Napier grass could hold the key to improving diets, boosting farming yields and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in East Africa. Growing and using Napier as a nutrient rich animal fodder on the farm, could also reduce pressure on forests, according to new research.
Read moreAluminum toxicity is a major contributor to poor crop growth, especially in regions with acidic soils. How aluminum enters at the growing root tips of plants is not well understood. Researchers have found that pectin, a chemical component of the plant cell wall, may play a key role as a barrier to prevent aluminum from entering rice plants. The study sheds light on how rice plants may resist aluminum toxicity.
Read moreA new study found that more than 27% of teens exceed recommended sugar intake and 21% exceed recommended caffeine from soda and energy drinks. Males consumed more sodas and energy drinks than females, and youth in grade 8 consumed more than those in grade 10.
Read moreResearchers describe the emerging role of ecophysiology in riparian flooding. As an adaptation to an overabundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, trees, plants and grasses constrict their stomatal pores to regulate the amount of the gas they consume, a mechanism that limits the release of water from leaves through evaporation. This saturates soils and causes more efficient run off and river flooding.
Read moreThe roots of plants can do a lot of things: They grow in length to reach water, they can bend to circumvent stones, and they form fine root hairs enabling them to absorb more nutrients from the soil. A team of researchers has now identified an important regulator of this process.
Read moreNew research has found lower bone density in adults who are likely to have undiagnosed celiac disease, an autoimmune disease triggered by consuming gluten, despite this group consuming more calcium and phosphorous than the control group.
Read moreAs global temperatures continue to rise, the thawing of permafrost is accelerated and mercury trapped in the frozen ground is now being released. The mercury is transforming into more mobile and potentially toxic forms that can lead to environmental and health concerns for wildlife, the fishing industry and people in the Arctic and beyond.
Read moreThe 2019 Global Agricultural Productivity Report, shows agricultural productivity growth — increasing output of crops and livestock with existing or fewer inputs — is growing globally at an average annual rate of 1.63%.
Read moreFarmers in Colombia's maize-growing region of Córdoba had seen it all: too much rain one year, a searing drought the next. Yields were down and their livelihoods hung in the balance. To better deal with climate stress, farmers in Colombia's maize-growing region of Córdoba needed information services that would help them decide what varieties to plant, when they should sow and how they should manage their crops.
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