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Leader in global nitrogen cycle research Eric Davidson named Jefferson Science Fellow

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IMAGE: University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Professor Eric A. Davidson, an international leader in global nitrogen cycle research, has been named a Jefferson Science Fellow. He will spend a...
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Credit: University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
CAMBRIDGE, MD (April 12, 2021)--University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Professor and Appalachian Laboratory Director Eric A. Davidson, an international leader in global nitrogen cycle research, has been named a Jefferson Science Fellow. Beginning August 2021, he will spend a year as a science advisor to the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Office of Environmental Quality in Washington, D.C.

United-states , Cambridge , Cambridgeshire , United-kingdom , Washington , American , Erica-davidson , Peter-goodwin , American-center , Bureau-of-oceans , Office-of-environmental-quality , International-environmental

Humans were apex predators for two million years

Credit: Dr. Miki Ben Dor
Researchers at Tel Aviv University were able to reconstruct the nutrition of stone age humans. In a paper published in the Yearbook of the American Physical Anthropology Association, Dr. Miki Ben-Dor and Prof. Ran Barkai of the Jacob M. Alkov Department of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, together with Raphael Sirtoli of Portugal, show that humans were an apex predator for about two million years. Only the extinction of larger animals (megafauna) in various parts of the world, and the decline of animal food sources toward the end of the stone age, led humans to gradually increase the vegetable element in their nutrition, until finally they had no choice but to domesticate both plants and animals - and became farmers.

Portugal , United-states , American , Miki-ben , Raphael-sirtoli , Yearbook-of-the-american-physical-anthropology-association , Researchers-at-tel-aviv-university , Tel-aviv-university , American-physical-anthropology-association , Miki-ben-dor , Ran-barkai , Agriculture-

Beef industry can cut emissions with land management, production efficiency

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IMAGE: Researchers found the most potential for industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and Brazil.
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Credit: Kenton Rowe for The Nature Conservancy
A comprehensive assessment of 12 different strategies for reducing beef production emissions worldwide found that industry can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by as much as 50% in certain regions, with the most potential in the United States and Brazil. The study, "Reducing Climate Impacts of Beef Production: A synthesis of life cycle assessments across management systems and global regions," is published April 5 in
Global Change Biology.
A research team led by Colorado State University (CSU) and funded by the Climate and Land Use Alliance found that widespread use of improved ranching management practices in two distinct areas of beef production would lead to substantial emissions reductions. This includes increased efficiency to produce more beef per unit of GHG emitted - growing bigger cows at a faster rate - and enhanced land management strategies to increase soil and plant carbon sequestration on grazed lands.

Australia , California , United-states , Smithsonian-tropical-research-institute , Panamam , Panama , Canada , Brazil , America , Brazilian , Kenyon-chow , Daniela-cusack

How climate change affects Colombia's coffee production

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IMAGE: Federico Ceballos-Sierra, University of Illinois, surveys coffee plants at his family farm in Colombia. He is lead author on a study estimating how climate change will impact Colombian coffee production....
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Credit: College of AC ES, University of Illinois.
URBANA, Ill. ¬- If your day started with a cup of coffee, there's a good chance your morning brew came from Colombia. Home to some of the finest Arabica beans, the country is the world's third largest coffee producer. Climate change poses new challenges to coffee production in Colombia, as it does to agricultural production anywhere in the world, but a new University of Illinois study shows effects vary widely depending on where the coffee beans grow.

Puerto-rico , California , United-states , Colombia , Tolima , Cesar , Hawaii , Colombian , Sandy-dallerba , Federico-ceballos-sierra , University-of-illinois , Department-of-agricultural

Banana farming practices: Restoring soil potassium

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Potassium is a major plant nutrient, and recycling it between plants and soil serves the best interest of both. Banana plant absorbs huge amount of potassium from soil and distributes between the trunk (pseudo-stem) and the fruits. Banana plants give fruits only once, and volume of pseudo-stem generated is five to ten times of fruits. Naturally, banana farming generates a huge quantity of biomasses and leads to severe depletion of soil potassium. This book reports how part of the depleted potassium can be restored to soil.
Banana is a major crop in at least 135 countries world over, and more than 150 million MT banana fruits are produced every year. This much of banana production is associated with 750 to 1500 million MT of bio-waste, and this much bio-waste is equivalent to 2.2213 to 4.4427 billion MT of muriate of potash (MOP). We are reporting to show how to use banana plant pseudo-stem in lieu of MOP to grow five different crops on experimental basis. Undoubtedly, our experiments may be extended to cover many other crops. The use of pseudo-stem juice as the substitute for potash not only restores soil potassium but also enhances crop yields minimum 10% up to about 60%.

Gauhati , Assam , India , Narayanpur , Rajasthan , Tokyo , Japan , Dhakuakhana , United-kingdom , Kharagpur , West-bengal , Manchester

Two plant immune branches more intimately connected than previously believed

Credit: Dr. Kenichi Tsuda
Plant inducible defense starts with the recognition of microbes, which leads to the activation of a complex set of cellular responses. There are many ways to recognize a microbe, and recognition of microbial features by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) outside the cell was long thought to activate the first line of defense: Pattern Triggered Immunity, or PTI. To avoid these defense responses, microbes of all kinds evolved the ability to deliver effector molecules to the plant cell, either directly into the cytoplasm or into the area just outside the cell, where they are taken up into the cytoplasm. Response to these effector molecules was thought to be mediated exclusively by intracellular nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat receptors (NLRs) which induce Effector Triggered Immunity, or ETI. These two signaling pathways are often thought of as two distinct branches of the plant immune response, with each contributing differently to overall immunity. However, the dichotomy between PTI and ETI has become blurred due to recent discoveries, indicating that responses to PRR receptor signaling and NLR signaling extensively overlap.

China , Huazhong , Hubei , United-states , Kenichi-tsuda , University-of-minnesota , Huazhong-agricultural-university , Pattern-triggered-immunity , Effector-triggered-immunity , Mediated-signaling , Plant-immunity , Agriculture-

Feeding cattle seaweed reduces their greenhouse gas emissions 82 percent

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IMAGE: This steer at UC Davis was fed a small amount of seaweed that resulted in a dramatic drop in methane emissions.
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Credit: Breanna Roque/UC Davis
A bit of seaweed in cattle feed could reduce methane emissions from beef cattle as much as 82 percent, according to new findings from researchers at the University of California, Davis. The results, published today (March 17) in the journal
PLOS ONE, could pave the way for the sustainable production of livestock throughout the world.
"We now have sound evidence that seaweed in cattle diet is effective at reducing greenhouse gases and that the efficacy does not diminish over time," said Ermias Kebreab, professor and Sesnon Endowed Chair of the Department of Animal Science and director of the World Food Center. Kebreab conducted the study along with his Ph.D. graduate student Breanna Roque.

Australia , California , United-states , Breanna-roque , Ermias-kebreab , University-of-california , World-food-center , James-cook-university , Department-of-animal-science , Industrial-research-organization , Sesnon-endowed-chair , Animal-science

NTU Singapore scientists develop device to 'communicate' with plants using electrical signals

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VIDEO: Plant talk: A team of scientists led by #NTUsg? has developed a device that can 'communicate' with plants by delivering electrical signals to and from plants. Potential uses of the...
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Credit: NTU Singapore
A team of scientists led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has developed a device that can deliver electrical signals to and from plants, opening the door to new technologies that make use of plants.
The NTU team developed their plant 'communication' device by attaching a conformable electrode (a piece of conductive material) on the surface of a Venus flytrap plant using a soft and sticky adhesive known as hydrogel. With the electrode attached to the surface of the flytrap, researchers can achieve two things: pick up electrical signals to monitor how the plant responds to its environment, and transmit electrical signals to the plant, to cause it to close its leaves.

Singapore , Chen-xiaodong , Nanyang-technological-university , Innovative-centre-for-flexible-devices , Singapore-agency-for-science , Institute-of-materials-research , Nature-electronics , Chair-professor , Materials-science , Innovative-centre , Flexible-devices , Materials-research

Going back in time restores decades of quiet corn drama

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IMAGE: Using a chronosequence of corn lines, University of Illinois researchers found decades of breeding and reliance on chemical fertilizers prevents modern corn from recruiting nitrogen-fixing microbes.
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Credit: Alonso Favela, University of Illinois.
URBANA, Ill. - Corn didn't start out as the powerhouse crop it is today. No, for most of the thousands of years it was undergoing domestication and improvement, corn grew humbly within the limits of what the environment and smallholder farmers could provide.
For its fertilizer needs, early corn made friends with nitrogen-fixing soil microbes by leaking an enticing sugary cocktail from its roots. The genetic recipe for this cocktail was handed down from parent to offspring to ensure just the right microbes came out to play.

Illinois , United-states , Urbana , University-of-illinois , Angela-kent , Martin-bohn , Department-of-natural-resources , Program-in-ecology , Environmental-sciences , International-journal-of-microbial-ecology , College-of-agricultural , Department-of-crop-sciences

Weed invaders are getting faster

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Dr Daniel Montesinos is a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Tropical Herbarium, at James Cook University in Cairns. He is studying weeds to better understand (among other things) how they might respond to climate change.
He said most invasive plants are characterised by their rapid pace when it comes to taking up nutrients, growing, and reproducing - and they're even faster in the regions they invade.
"New experiments comparing populations from distant regions show a clear trend for already-fast invasive plants to rapidly adapt even faster traits in their non-native regions," Dr Montesinos said.
This is further pronounced in the tropics and sub-tropics.

Australia , United-kingdom , Australian , British , Daniel-montesinos , Senior-research , British-ecological-society-journal-of-ecology , James-cook-university-in-cairns , Senior-research-fellow , Australian-tropical-herbarium , James-cook-university , British-ecological-society