They already exist in selected supermarkets and restaurants: multi-story glass greenhouses in which herbs and lettuce grow in a nutrient solution. This means they can be offered fresh every day without the need for costly transportation. Following Edeka's lead, Rewe now also wants to test resource-saving food production as part of a pilot project in Wiesbaden.
The condition of the forests is worrying: many older trees are suffering from drought, pests and storms, and the consequences of climate change have made the forest more susceptible to fires. Furthermore, only 21% of tree crowns are still intact. The current forest condition report of the Thünen Institute for Forest Ecosystems in Eberswalde once again shows the vulnerability of the forest ecosystem and the urgent need for action.
Animals, plants or microorganisms in the soil depend on a balanced supply of nutrients such as nitrogen. However, the reality looks often different, because agricultural areas are overfertilized. Sönke Zaehle is researching the effects that nutrient inputs such as nitrogen have on ecosystems and how their capabilities are affected as a result.
In order to find an alternative to the often aggressive and allergenic detergents, the owner of a commercial cleaning company experimented with various plants. Ultimately, she came across the cleaning power of beetroots, which contain oxalic acid, and developed her own cleaning agent.
From offices to classrooms: Air filters have been booming since the outbreak of the pandemic. They can be used to remove virus-laden aerosols from rooms and thus reduce the risk of infection. Ideally, filter materials should also be environmentally friendly. For this reason, researchers from the Zuse community have taken a close look at nonwovens made of bioplastics as filter materials and examined them for filter performance and durability.
Eliminating competing wild plants while minimizing the impact on the ecosystem: that is the promise of a newly developed sensor for use in crop protection. Arable plants are always in competition with wild plants for sunlight, water and nutrients. To maximize yields, farmers therefore control wild plants, mostly with herbicides. But pesticides impair soil fertility, accumulate in bodies of water and contribute to species extinction.
Surviving is more important than growing: This obvious insight has also been anchored in trees by evolution, as an international research team with the participation of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biogeochemistry now reports in the scientific journal "PNAS". According to the findings, the spruce trees studied prefer to keep their stores filled when resources are scarce, and even stop growing to do so.
From a functionalized fiber made from naturally occurring starch from green waste and other plants, the Darmstadt-based textile start-up "nakt" produces sustainable reusable makeup removal wipes. These can be reused for months without additional cleaning products to remove makeup, as well as machine washed in between, and are ultimately compostable as well as recyclable.
Since the end of last year, Germany has once again had a Bioeconomy Council. The 20-member expert body elected Hohenheim agricultural researcher Iris Lewandowski as its chairperson together with Daniela Thrän.
Stress is unhealthy - for both humans and plants. Unlike humans or animals, however, plants cannot avoid stress, e.g., they cannot flee from heat into the shade or into cooler areas. That is why plant cells have a number of adaptation mechanisms. Researchers have now been able to show that the mechanisms in the shoot meristem are particularly effective if the plant has already survived heat.