Will rising carbon dioxide levels really boost plant growth?

Plants have become an unlikely subject of political debate. Many projections suggest that burning fossil fuels and the resulting climate change will make it harder to grow enough food for everyone in the coming decades. But ...

Hippo teeth reveal environmental change

Loss of megaherbivores such as elephants and hippos can allow woody plants and non-grassy herbs and flowering plants to encroach on grasslands in African national parks, according to a new University of Utah study, published ...

A step towards increasing crop productivity

(Phys.org) —A breakthrough in understanding the evolutionary pathways along which some crops have become significantly more productive as others may help scientists boost yields of some staple foodstuffs.

High CO2 spurs wetlands to absorb more carbon

(Phys.org) —Under elevated carbon dioxide levels, wetland plants can absorb up to 32 percent more carbon than they do at current levels, according to a 19-year study published in Global Change Biology from the Smithsonian ...

Scientists discover genetic key to efficient crops

(Phys.org)—With projections of 9.5 billion people by 2050, humankind faces the challenge of feeding modern diets to additional mouths while using the same amounts of water, fertilizer and arable land as today.

Genes may travel from plant to plant to fuel evolution: study

The evolution of plants and animals generally has been thought to occur through the passing of genes from parent to offspring and genetic modifications that happen along the way. But evolutionary biologists from Brown University ...

New research changes understanding of C4 plant evolution

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new analysis of fossilized grass-pollen grains deposited on ancient European lake and sea bottoms 16-35 million years ago reveals that C4 grasses evolved earlier than previously thought. This new evidence ...

Asian elephant outlives stegodon—advantage due to diverse diet

Together with their Chinese colleagues, Senckenberg scientists studied the feeding habits of the Asian elephant and its extinct relative, the stegodon, during the Pleistocene. They reached the conclusion that the Asian elephant ...

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