Different cover crops may affect how plants can defend themselves against pests — including attracting more insects that eat harmful caterpillars, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

Forests support much of the world's biodiversity and play a vital role in regulating Earth's climate, but they are increasingly exposed to drought.

Their study, published in the journal NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes, paves the way for the development of inoculants that can be used in agriculture.

Irrigated mountain hayfields can act as large filtration systems that reduce sediment, phosphorus and other contaminants from runoff, sometimes improving the quality of water flowing back into the environment, Colorado State University research has found.

When people hear that I am completing my doctorate in agricultural and biological engineering at UF, they often assume my work is confined to farmland, crop yields and tractors.

Growing up in New Jersey, Emily Wilson regularly passed tidal marshes without giving them much thought. They were part of the coastal landscape—stretches of green and blue she saw from the road.

It wasn’t until she began studying environmental science as an undergraduate that she realized how remarkable they were—plants thriving in salty, waterlogged environments amidst the constant ebb and flow of tides.

Today, as a Boston University PhD candidate in Earth & Environment, Wilson studies those same ecosystems—and has discovered that the plants she once drove past may hold important information to more accurately track the global climate.

Read more at: Boston University

Photo Credit: Emily Wilson, Boston University

Engineers have developed a strain of a common bacterial species that can feed exclusively on the three major sugars present in corn stalks. 

A new study published in Nature Climate Change reveals a more complex reality: some tree species are moving uphill, while others are shifting downhill, and the key to understanding these contrasting responses lies in how trees manage water.

Forest trees growing in air containing higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) radically change the way they ‘cycle’ nitrogen, a key plant nutrient, with implications for forests as a nature-based climate solution.

Satellite-derived maps of defoliation caused by European spongy moths – a devastating U.S. forest pest that consumes the leaves of a wide variety of trees – offer a promising solution for tracking where and when to spray and for identifying large scale trends and conditions that lead to pest outbreaks, according to a new study.