News by Subject Agriculture

Assessments of ecosystem services should take greater account of species diversity, scientists from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) are calling for. Large-scale assessments, however, only address some of these services, such as water filtration and carbon storage. In contrast, ecosystem services directly linked to species hardly play a role. The researchers point out that this wastes many opportunities for effective nature and species conservation.

A combined treatment of irradiation and essential oil vapors could effectively destroy insects, bacteria and mold in stored grains. The team of INRS Professor Monique Lacroix has demonstrated the effect of this process on insects affecting rice. The study was published in the Radiation Physics and Chemistry journal.

Satellite imagery shows that the area covered by kelp forests off the coast of Northern California has dropped by more than 95 percent, with just a few small, isolated patches of bull kelp remaining. Species-rich kelp forests have been replaced by 'urchin barrens,' where purple sea urchins cover a seafloor devoid of kelp and other algae. A new study documents this dramatic shift in the coastal ecosystem and analyzes the events that caused it.

More Antarctic meltwater is surfacing than was previously known, modifying the climate, preventing sea ice from forming and boosting marine productivity- according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA). For the first time, researchers have been able to obtain full-depth glacial meltwater observations in winter, using instruments attached to the heads of seals living near the Pine Island Glacier, in the remote Amundsen Sea in the west of Antarctica.

Many species might be left vulnerable in the face of climate change, unable to adapt their physiologies to respond to rapid global warming. According to a team of international researchers, species evolve heat tolerance more slowly than cold tolerance, and the level of heat they can adapt to has limits.

New study examines importance and unique characteristics of US female farmers