New paper points to soil pore structure as key to carbon storage

Alexandra Kravchenko, Michigan State University professor in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, and several of her colleagues recently discovered a new mechanism determining how carbon is stored in soils ...

A tree stump that should be dead is still alive; here's why

Within a shrouded New Zealand forest, a tree stump keeps itself alive by holding onto the roots of its neighboring trees, exchanging water and resources through the grafted root system. New research, publishing July 25 in ...

Methods in belowground botany

Plant root systems play a crucial role in ecosystems, radically impacting everything from nutrient cycling to species composition. Despite their importance, scientists are just beginning to develop the tools to understand ...

Team guides plants towards obtaining iron

A team at the University of Cordoba has examined the link between the presence of beneficial organisms in plant roots to their response to iron deficiency.

The dirt on soil loss from the Midwest floods

As devastating images of the 2019 Midwest floods fade from view, an insidious and longer-term problem is emerging across its vast plains: The loss of topsoil that much of the nation's food supply relies on.

Rusted root: Weedy rice repeatedly evolves 'cheater' root traits

Weedy rice is neither wild rice nor crop rice, but rice gone rogue that has shed some traits important to people. It also is an incredibly aggressive, potentially detrimental weed that pops up almost everywhere rice is grown, ...

Large and branched root systems can speed up growth of spruces

The growth rate of trees varies: some trees grow slower and others faster by nature. The amount of nutrients and water a tree receives depends on its root system and the symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi growing in the root system. ...

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