Essential oil from underused Hinoki (Japanese cypress) roots may help improve sleep quality, according to a pilot study of middle-aged women. In a home-based crossover study, participants showed fewer nighttime awakenings, improved morning feelings, and brain-wave patterns suggesting smoother sleep onset. The findings also point to potential higher-value uses of forestry residues in aroma-based relaxation products.

A study of Scots pine plantations across Mediterranean Spain, temperate Romania and Northeast China found that climate constraints on growth vary by region. Soil moisture was the main limitation in dry Spanish sites, while temperature played a larger role in Romania and Northeast China. Spanish plantations showed sharper drought-related growth declines but stronger average recovery, although many did not recover within four years. The findings support region-specific forest management and improved models incorporating long-term drought, regional climate dynamics and local adaptation.

A new study in Forest Ecosystems tracked a 300-year temperate forest succession and found that particulate organic carbon (POC) declined at all depths, while mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) increased by 55% in surface soils but declined deeper down. These patterns were linked to shifts in microbial life-history strategies: surface MAOC accumulation associated with extracellular processing, while deeper carbon dynamics tied to microbial growth and declining necromass under resource scarcity. The findings suggest that forest age alone cannot predict carbon storage, soil depth and microbial mechanisms matter.

A study in Forest Ecosystems shows that aquaculture wastewater may weaken carbon stabilization and alter nitrogen regulation in mangrove soils. In China’s Maowei Sea, heavily affected soils contained much less dissolved organic carbon and substantially less organic carbon associated with crystalline iron minerals. Nutrient enrichment appeared to stimulate microbial carbon consumption and more reducing soil conditions, weakening iron-organic carbon coupling. At the same time, nitrogen cycling shifted toward greater ammonium retention and recycling rather than permanent removal. These changes could reduce the capacity of mangrove soils to preserve carbon over the long term and remove excess nitrogen, highlighting the importance of managing aquaculture discharge and monitoring carbon–iron-microbial interactions.

A new study from the lab of Elias Uddin, assistant professor of animal science at the University of Connecticut determined a more accurate measure of the carbon footprint of milk using data about milk produced in Bangladesh. This work was recently published in the Journal of Dairy Science. However, this study demonstrated that using farm-specific data and the Tier 2 equations proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) resulted in a 27% lower carbon footprint of milk compared with previous estimates based on the more generalized Tier 1 equations.

Breeding crops for farming systems rather than yield alone could exploit untapped genetic potential and help farmers cut fertiliser bills.

What makes more sense when farming wheat – strips of wildflowers along fields or organic farming? Both options provide financial support via the European Union as environmentally friendly and sustainable farming practices. An international research team, including researchers from the University of Göttingen, has now compared the ecological and economic benefits of these two farming methods in fields planted with winter wheat. They found that both measures increased biodiversity by 20 to 30 percent compared to conventionally farmed wheat fields. From an economic perspective, the organic fields were the most profitable. Although yields were only half as high as those of conventionally farmed wheat, profits were one and a half times higher. The results were published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa adopt agricultural inputs including fertilizer at a low rate, contributing to low agricultural productivity. Previous research has shown that insufficient information and distrust in the quality of products for sale in local markets are among the reasons for low rates of fertilizer adoption and application. In a new study, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers examined the agricultural marketplace in Tanzania, finding that frequent turnover among local agro-dealers affect farmer perceptions of product quality and have implications for broader market functioning.

Irrigating U.S. crops prevents higher greenhouse gas emissions by avoiding land conversion, groundbreaking new research by Colorado State University shows.