A nonnative tree-killing insect is invading northern Utah, attacking subalpine fir and potentially triggering yet another die-off of the region’s long-stressed conifer forests.

Farmers in a time crunch have a new, speedier option for analyzing the texture and organic matter content of the soil on their fields.

Gerson Drescher, assistant professor of soil fertility for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, led a study to create prediction models for these key soil health indicators based on standard tests already being used to analyze soil samples.

“We want to provide people with the maximal amount of information that they can get from samples they are already submitting without the additional cost and time of analysis,” Drescher said.

The newly developed prediction model can help add information about the soil’s properties, which can guide fertilization, irrigation, and herbicide decisions, Drescher added. Standard soil testing evaluates plant-available nutrient content and soil pH. However, these properties are also affected by soil texture and organic matter in the soil, which require additional expensive and time-consuming tests.

Read more at: University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

Soil samples at the Marianna Soil Test Lab are prepared for testing. (Photo Credit: U of A System Division of Agriculture)

Scientists say artificial intelligence can transform the identification and monitoring of species across the world, providing a revolutionary tool in supporting action to understand and reverse biodiversity losses.

The invasive insect emerald ash borer is killing ash trees at an unprecedented rate in the United States, and now five North American species of ash are considered critically endangered, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service.

Drones monitoring fields for weeds and robots targeting and treating crop diseases may sound like science fiction but is actually happening already, at least on some experimental farms. 

On a blustery March morning, Petya Campbell stood atop a 204-foot-tall tower and looked across the waving canopy of the leafless deciduous forest at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland.

Researchers at UMass Amherst find Indigenous populations bear the environmental and public health costs when native Indonesian forests are converted to oil palm plantations.

Fungal disease Fusarium head blight (FHB) is on the rise due to increasingly humid conditions induced by climate change during the wheat growing season, but a fundamental discovery by University of Adelaide researchers could help reduce its economic harm.

A Curtin University study has revealed breeding less-flatulent cows and restoring agricultural land could significantly reduce rising methane emission levels, which play a considerable role in climate change.

It’s not a single pesticide or virus stressing honey bees, and affecting their health, but exposure to a complex web of multiple interacting stressors encountered while at work pollinating crops, found new research out of York University.