The caterpillar form of an unassuming, small, white butterfly is among the world's most invasive pests affecting agricultural crops, and a newly published paper by a consortium of scientists documents how humans have helped ...
Ecology
Sep 11, 2019
2
231
Researchers have found that the plastic mulch used to support the growth of Californian strawberries sheds large quantities of plastic mulch fragments. These particles have been shown to negatively impact soil qualities, ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 9, 2023
0
132
A team of researchers from Purdue University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has found that trees in the United States are facing devastating threats due to invasive species. In their paper published in Proceedings ...
Spider venoms are usually toxic when injected into prey, but a new protein discovered in the venom of Australian tarantulas can also kill prey insects that consume the venom orally. The protein is strongly insecticidal to ...
Ecology
Sep 11, 2013
5
0
For the first time, the genome of the tomato, Solanum lycopersicum, has been decoded, and it becomes an important step toward improving yield, nutrition, disease resistance, taste and color of the tomato and other crops. ...
Biotechnology
May 30, 2012
8
0
A new study has revealed that global warming is resulting in the spread of crop pests towards the North and South Poles at a rate of nearly 3 km a year. The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change and carried ...
Environment
Sep 1, 2013
60
0
An increasing number of crops commercially grown today are genetically modified (GM) to resist insect pests and/or tolerate herbicides. Although Bt corn is one of the most commonly grown GM crops in the United States, little ...
Ecology
Apr 17, 2012
2
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- Long-term, open-top chamber studies of how rising carbon dioxide (CO2) could affect crops, forests, and pastures reveal a wide range of impacts, according to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists.
Ecology
Dec 9, 2009
0
0
When herbivores such as caterpillars feed, plants may "call for help" by emitting volatiles, which can indirectly help defend the plants. The volatiles recruit parasitoids that infect, consume and kill the herbivores, to ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 27, 2012
3
72
Over the past 20 years a steady trickle of scientific papers has reported that there are fewer insects than there used to be. Both the combined weight (what scientists call biomass) and diversity of insect species have declined. ...
Ecology
Feb 15, 2023
0
59
