Role of manganese in soil carbon and climate change

While most people think first of atmospheric carbon emissions from fossil fuels when considering climate change, the planet's soil actually stores more carbon and could become a major source of carbon release or a mitigation ...

Computational modelling experts pioneer pest-busting model

Mathematicians at the University of Leicester have developed a new mathematical model which could greatly increase the efficiency of pest control and hence significantly reduce the impact of pests on crops whilst minimizing ...

Unveiling the secrets of biofilms

Most bacteria have the ability to form communities, biofilms, that adhere to a wide variety of surfaces and are difficult to remove. This can lead to major problems, for example in hospitals or in the food industry. Now, ...

A mathematical approach to protecting endangered plants

In a new study published in the journal Ecological Modelling, a team of researchers led by Benito Chen-Charpentier, professor of mathematics at The University of Texas at Arlington, devises a mathematical model to calculate ...

Modeling mulch to understand agricultural soil

Ensuring appropriate access to water is a key concern for farmers. Crops can underperform, or even die, in the presence of too little or too much water. But soil's ability to retain water is a complex process that depends ...

Keeping track of rare mountaintop plants with drones

When an endangered plant's favorite place to live is the side of a mountain, keeping track of its numbers typically requires rappelling down cliff faces with specialized gear––no mean feat. Now, a drone-based approach ...

The young plant's pantry does more than just feed it

The endosperm, the tissue surrounding the plant embryo in the seed, has long been perceived as a nourishing tissue that is abandoned once the transition to the seedling is complete. A Swiss team, led by scientists from the ...

High resolution image of Arabidopsis photosynthesis machine

For the first time, Umeå researchers have, with the help of cryogenic electron microscopy, succeeded in producing a high-resolution image of photosystem II—the central complex of photosynthesis—of the model plant Arabidopsis. ...

page 7 from 39