Bacterial mechanism converts nitrogen to greenhouse gas

Cornell researchers have discovered a biological mechanism that helps convert nitrogen-based fertilizer into nitrous oxide, an ozone-depleting greenhouse gas. The paper was published online Nov. 17 in the Proceedings of the ...

Study uses pine slash to improve soil

Pine slash—a major problem after recent flooding events—could be chipped and used to rehabilitate soil, new research from the University of Canterbury and ESR suggests.

Plants spice up their sex life with defensins

Since the beginning, plants and animals have deployed various mechanisms to fight pathogens. Proteins have always played an important part in this armoury, and a broad variety of defensin proteins have become part of the ...

'Skywalker': Aeronautical technology to improve maize yields

To design a low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle which helps to select the maize varieties which are best adapted to adverse environmental conditions is the main objective of an international project led by Josep Lluís Araus, ...

Thawing permafrost increases fertility in subarctic peatlands

(Phys.org) -- A group of ecologists from Umea University's Climate Impact Research Centre (CIRC) and VU University Amsterdam have shown that thawing permafrost increases fertility in subarctic peatlands in northern Sweden. ...

Study unravels links between soils and plant biodiversity

For decades, ecologists have studied soils to understand why some patches of vegetation contain more plant species than others.  Researchers at The University of Western Australia's School of Plant Biology and the Smithsonian ...

How does an increase in nitrogen application affect grasslands?

The "PaNDiv" experiment, established by researchers of the University of Bern on a 3000 m2 field site, is the largest biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiment in Switzerland and aims to better understand how increases ...

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