News by Subject Biology

Forty years after Dan Luoma found an unsual truffle collection, scientists confirmed it is a new species and named it after Luoma. 

A long-term study on cycads in Guam has revealed how rapidly invasive species devastated the native Cycas micronesica species and the key factors that have influenced the plant's mortality. The research -- conducted by the Western Pacific Tropical Research Center at the University of Guam and the College of Micronesia-FSM -- is published in the May 2020 issue of Diversity, a peer-reviewed journal published by MDPI.

Dr Arne Witt, lead author of the study published in the journal Bothalia, said that over half of farmers surveyed in the Karonga District of Malawi believe the weed, which more than 40 years ago had already been considered to be one of the 76 worst weeds in the world, believed the M. diplotricha to have reduced crop yields.

Miniscule plants growing on desert soils can help drylands retain water and reduce erosion, UNSW researchers have found.

Research investigates if chemicals released by cover crops may be the cause for yield reductions

In a new study in Science, researchers examined the plant life in the China's Hengduan Mountains, the Himalaya Mountains, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Using DNA to build family trees of species, they learned that the diversity of plants in that region today can be traced back to newly-formed mountain ranges 30 million years ago, and monsoons that came later. It's a concrete example of how climatic and environmental changes influence life on Earth.

A new USDA report focuses on how agricultural systems are impacted by climate change and offers a list of 20 indicators that provide a broad look at what's happening across the country.