News by Subject Agriculture

For the first time, scientists have shown that fungal hitchhikers use birds to colonize new territories with their plant partners. In a New Phytologist study, the researchers provide the first evidence that birds don't just carry plants to new places, but their fungal partners too.

A team of scientists from I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (MSMU) discovered that earthworms efficiently process rice straw and enrich the soil with organic matter increasing its fertility and preventing the burning of the straw that takes quite long to naturally decompose. The results of the study were published in the European Journal of Soil Biology. The work was supported with a grant of the Russian Science Foundation.

As coral species die off, they may be leaving a death spiral in their wake: Their absence could be sapping life from the corals that survive. In a new study, when isolated from other species, corals got weak, died off or grew in fragile structures. The study has shown it is possible to quantify positive effects of coral biodiversity and negative effects of its absence.

Land conservation programs that have converted tens of thousands of acres of agricultural land in Illinois back to a more natural state appear to have helped some rare birds increase their populations to historic levels, a new study finds. Other bird species with wider geographic ranges have not fared as well, however.

Some people consider pufferfish, also known as fugu, a delicacy because of its unique and exquisite flavor, which is perhaps seasoned by knowledge that consumption of the fish could be deadly. Now, researchers have identified the major compounds responsible for the taste of pufferfish, minus the thrill of living dangerously. They report their results in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

An international collaboration including Osaka University researchers has found that a peptide hormone regulates two different cell division processes that generate centrally important structures for the flow of water through plants. By binding to different receptors, the hormone controls the formation of not only xylem (the vessels that transport water up from the roots), but also stomata (the leaf pores through which water evaporates).

A new advanced line of rice, with higher yield, is ready for final field testing prior to release. On average, it has a protein content of 10.6 percent, a 53 percent increase from its original protein content. It also needs less heat, time, and usually less water to cook.

Humpback whales overwintering in feeding areas may sing complex, progressive songs which closely resemble those associated with breeding grounds, according to a study published Jan. 23, 2019, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Edda E. Magnúsdóttir and Rangyn Lim from the University of Iceland.