A new international study shows that medieval communities around Lake Constance actively boosted biodiversity. Combining fossil pollen, archaeobotanical evidence, and historical records, researchers document a sustained rise in plant diversity peaking around 1000 CE. The findings demonstrate that human activity can enhance biodiversity while sustaining food production, offering timely lessons for modern conservation strategies in the Anthropocene.

The American science socieites for crop, soil and agronomy awarded Mila Pessotto, Ph.D., a former master's student at the University of Arkansas, an 2025 Outstanding Paper Award for research that determined the cardinal temperatures for eight cover crops. Pessotto and a team of researchers with the University of Arkansas System Division of identified the base temperatures for two cover crop species and the optimum temperatures for three of cover crop species for the first time. They also determined the maximum temperature values of all eight cover crops, which included crimson clover, Austrian winter pea, balansa clover, barley, black-seeded oats, common vetch, cereal rye, crimson clover and hairy vetch.