News by Subject Agriculture

Understanding how plants respond to microgravity is critical to providing fresh food during space exploration initiatives. Researchers at the University of Florida Space Plants Lab compared two methods - RNA-Seq and microarray -- of analyzing which genes are expressed (the 'transcriptome') in plant tissue, specifically in the root tip. The results reveal how plants adapt to the microgravity space environment and can help guide research needed for the successful utilization of plants in future exploration initiatives.

When the critters that live in and around streams and wetlands are settling into their nighttime routines, streetlights and other sources of illumination filter down through the trees and into their habitat, monkeying with the normal state of affairs, according to new research from The Ohio State University.

Fragmentation within intact forests has a higher impact on vertebrate biodiversity than equivalent losses in already degraded landscapes, but the relationship between forest 'intactness' and extinction risk has not been quantified. In a new Animal Conservation study, researchers assessed the threat to forest-dependent birds (about 23 percent of all the world's birds) in relation to the proportion of forest within their distributions that remains intact.

When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last year, ecologists at Clemson's Belle W. Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science took the opportunity to study how hurricanes affect tropical dry forests in the Caribbean. Doctoral student Tristan Allerton presented findings from the year-long field study Tuesday at the British Ecological Society's annual conference.

Experts have found a way to model disease progression and predict the 'tipping point' of a disease, providing early warning indicators that an epidemic is imminent and action needs to be taken.