News by Subject Agriculture

A total of 174 chicken breeds are described in a publicly accessible database which scientists from the University of Göttingen and the Friedrich Loeffler Institute in Neustadt-Mariensee have built up in recent years with numerous international partners. This database, the Synbreed Chicken Diversity Panel (SCDP), includes information about a large proportion of the available chicken species and their diversity. The researchers created a family tree of exceptional completeness and detail. The results have been published in the journal BMC Genomics.

New research by an international group of scientists, from Inland Norway University, Bioversity International, Wageningen University and World Agroforestry, examines whether incorporating suitable trees into crop systems or replacing coffee with cocoa could help the thousands of families in Mesoamerica meet future climate conditions.

A team of University of Copenhagen researchers has compiled the first and only evidence that narwhals and beluga whales can breed successfully. DNA and stable isotope analysis of an anomalous skull from the Natural History Museum of Denmark has allowed researchers to confirm the existence of a narwhal-beluga hybrid.

If the climate continues warming as predicted, spruce beetle outbreaks in the Rocky Mountains could become more frequent.

A new paper examines the rarely explored coral reefs in deep water, where less than 1% of light from the surface makes it through. The research identifies how these corals are able to survive in such a dark place.

What factors govern algae's success as 'tenants' of their coral hosts both under optimal conditions and when oceanic temperatures rise?