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Forests with few tree species pose a considerably higher risk of being damaged, and the introduced lodgepole pine is especially vulnerable. This is the finding of a new study published in Ecosphere by researchers from Umeå University and the Swedish…

Ralstonia solanacearum is a soil-borne pathogen that devastates tomato and other Solanaceae crops globally. Traditional chemical controls have proven inadequate and environmentally damaging.

The human skin is home to a wide variety of bacteria. The composition of the community of bacteria—called the "skin microbiota"—has serious implications for skin health. A healthy balance between different species of bacteria on the skin often translates…

Quantitative disease resistance (QDR) is a complex but durable form of plant disease resistance that provides partial protection against a broad range of pathogens. Unlike qualitative resistance, driven by major resistance (R) genes, QDR is polygenic and…

Rice is a staple food crop for more than half the world's population, but most farmers don't grow high-yielding varieties because the seeds are too expensive. Researchers from the University of California's Davis and Berkeley campuses have identified a…

Noninvasive phenotyping has emerged as a vital tool in plant science, enabling the study of stress indicators without disrupting plant growth. While most studies have historically focused on analyzing stress responses in leaves, this novel research adopts a…

Scientists from the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences found forty new freshwater viruses infecting aquatic microorganisms this year. The first one, which they isolated and described in detail, was named Budvirus after the South Bohemian capital…

In Australia, shellfish reef restoration projects are helping to recover degraded coastal systems and enhance fish habitat, but much more research is needed to support and evaluate these efforts, researchers say.

The patches of lichen you've probably seen growing on tree trunks and park benches might be easy to overlook, but they're actually some of the world's strangest living things. While they're sometimes mistaken for moss, lichens are miniature ecosystems made up…

Researchers in the UK have developed a new spray coating for greenhouses that optimizes the wavelength of light shining onto the plants, improving their growth and yield. The technology could in the future help extend the growing seasons in less sunny…

Fungal contamination of cereal grains poses a substantial threat to food security and public health while causing hundreds of millions of dollars in economic losses annually. In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign evaluated…

A team of marine biologists, ecologists and evolutionary specialists from the University of Chicago, Stanford University and Duke University has found that heart cockles have windows in their shells to allow in light needed by the algae that live inside the…

New research suggests that while manatees are an indelible part of Florida's seascape, they might also be relatively new residents in the Sunshine State.

Chimpanzees are more likely to engage in play or groom each other if they see others performing these social behaviors first, Georgia Sandars and colleagues at Durham University, U.K. report in a study published November 20, 2024 in the open-access journal…

Oceans cover 71% of the Earth's surface, but despite their immense size and impact on the planet, we know very little about them. While many of us might associate the sea with relaxing holidays on tropical beaches, the ocean is nothing but cold, dark and…

Over the typical two-year rotation of corn and soybeans most Iowa farmers use, 40% of nitrous oxide emissions are in the soybean year, according to a new study by an Iowa State University research team.

Mangroves are remarkable ecosystems home to amazing biodiversity, dense vegetation, and conditions that capture large quantities of carbon. Since they occur in warm, tropical, and subtropical coastal regions, they also take the brunt of the impact from…

FMI researchers have developed a new tool that maps how proteases—enzymes that process proteins—cut their targets. This innovation offers new insight into the highly selective nature of proteases, which were previously seen as indiscriminate degraders. The…

New work from the laboratory of Michel Cayouette, Director of the Cellular Neurobiology Research Unit at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM) and Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Montréal, reveals for the first time that…

Achieving the aggregation of different mutation types at multiple genomic loci and generating transgene-free plants in the T0 generation is an important goal in crop breeding. Although prime editing (PE), as the latest precise gene editing technology, can…

New findings, published in the journal Ecology, describe a newly documented behavior of Ethiopian wolves (Canis simensis).

Four closely related civets, a small nocturnal animal found in Africa and Asia, have made the same geographical area in the rainforests of Borneo home. Typically, closely related animal species have difficulty coexisting because they are competing for the same…

New research shows that most areas under a federal government scheme designed to reduce carbon emissions or store carbon don't protect the habitat of threatened species.

A study found that invasive zebra mussels significantly alter aquatic ecosystems, and are associated with elevated mercury concentrations in fish. Mercury, a potent neurotoxin, poses a serious threat to both aquatic life and human health.

The Target Malaria UK modeling team at Imperial College London has published their latest study in Nature Communications, titled "The potential of gene drives in malaria vector species to control malaria in African environments."

A baby Philippine Eagle has hatched in the Southeast Asian country with the help of artificial insemination, sparking hope that science and conservation can save the critically endangered raptor from extinction.

Dairy cows typically rest for 10 or more hours a day, so a dry, clean, and comfortable place—such as a freestall—to lie down and rest is essential for their health, well-being, and production performance. One key factor in whether stalls are comfortable…

Wings may be the obvious choice when studying the connection between dinosaurs and birds, but a pair of Yale paleontologists prefer drumsticks. That part of the leg, they say, is where fibular reduction among some dinosaurs tens of millions of years ago helped…

Rivers and streams serve as critical connectors across vast geographical landscapes, trickling out of tucked-away headwaters and snaking thousands of miles toward oceans and deep seas. These waterways directly impact human and environmental health, agriculture…

More than 3 billion years ago, on an Earth entirely covered with water, photosynthesis first evolved in ancient bacteria. In the following millions of years, those bacteria evolved into plants, optimizing themselves along the way for various environmental…