News by Subject Biology

Since 2010, pistachio farmers from Sicily have been reporting a disease on the trees, characterised by cankers and declines, sometimes leading to the collapse of entire plants. Having surveyed 15 pistachio orchards from three provinces, as well as potted plants, an international team of researchers identified a new disease caused by a previously unknown fungus. The aetiology of the disease and the new pathogenic species are described in the open access journal MycoKeys.

The adoption of 'silvopastures' -- incorporating trees into pastureland -- can provide habitat for forest bird species and improve connectivity in landscapes fragmented by agriculture. But how do silvopastures measure up to natural forest habitat? New research from The Condor: Ornithological Applications shows that birds in silvopasture forage less efficiently than those in forest fragments but offers suggestions for how silvopasture habitat could be improved.

While scientists fear that rising temperatures could unleash a 'bomb' of carbon from Earth's soil carbon reservoirs, a new FSU study suggests these reservoirs might actually be more stable than predicted.

Just like humans, plants have an immune system that helps them fight off infections. Gitta Coaker and colleagues at UC Davis have now identified a key step in how plant cells respond to pathogens -- a family of kinase enzymes that activate the enzymes that make reactive oxygen.

An international team of researchers has outlined a plan for how to measure changes in key traits of animals and plants and provide these data to policymakers to improve natural resource management and keep nations on track to meet global biodiversity and sustainability goals.

A Rutgers-led team has discovered how plants harness microbes in soil to get nutrients, a process that could be exploited to boost crop growth, fight weeds and slash the use of polluting fertilizers and herbicides.

Since 2010, a tiny moth originating from East Asia has been spreading over eastern North America. Its green larvae, or caterpillars, make narrow tunnels in the leaves of Siberian elms. Sometimes very abundant, they can be seen to descend en masse from the trees when they are done feeding. The moth species was described independently from Russia as Stigmella multispicata in 2014.