Desertification is a significant problem for arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions of Earth, whereby grasslands and shrublands become a comparatively barren desert as vegetation disappears over time. This poses an extreme ...
Symbiotic relationships between legumes and the bacteria that grow in their roots are critical for plant survival. Without those bacteria, the plants would have no source of nitrogen, an element that is essential for building ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 11, 2022
0
724
Researchers at the University of Oxford and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have discovered a new gene that improves the yield and fertilizer use efficiency of rice.
Biotechnology
Feb 7, 2020
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257
Providing seeds with a protective coating that also supplies essential nutrients to the germinating plant could make it possible to grow crops in otherwise unproductive soils, according to new research at MIT.
Ecology
Nov 25, 2019
2
226
Engineers at Stanford University have devised a new way to generate electricity from sewage using naturally-occurring "wired microbes" as mini power plants, producing electricity as they digest plant and animal waste.
Energy & Green Tech
Sep 16, 2013
14
0
New research published in npj Sustainable Agriculture reports that biomass made from the purple photosynthetic marine bacterium Rhodovulum sulfidophilum is an excellent nitrogen fertilizer.
Biotechnology
Jun 24, 2024
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41
Diverse and full of sea life, the Earth's Devonian era—taking place more than 370 million years ago—saw the emergence of the first seed-bearing plants, which spread as large forests across the continents of Gondwana and ...
Evolution
Dec 6, 2023
0
388
Introducing llamas (Llama glama) into land exposed by retreating glaciers can speed the establishment of stable soils and ecosystem formation, mitigating some of the harmful effects of climate change, according to experimental ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 4, 2023
0
8
The transport of pharmaceuticals released from sewage treatment plants into farmland soils, with the potential to load into drinking water sources, is one that researchers at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) ...
Environment
Aug 9, 2023
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82
Tropical rainforests store 25%-40% of global soil carbon, though they occupy only 7% of Earth's land area. By functioning as a carbon sink, tropical forests prevent more severe effects from climate change.
Earth Sciences
Apr 17, 2023
2
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