Agriculture sciences

Plants get their nutrients from the ground via their root network. However, many nutrients are nearly insoluble or very rare. Therefore, many plants live in symbiosis with root fungi that facilitate the plants’ nutrient uptake and help them thrive under extreme conditions. In fact, more than 70% of higher plants establish an association with these fungi, so-called mycorrhiza, which are believed to be more than 400 million years old. The mutualistic association allows the plant to better absorb nutrients, such as phosphate – an especially important but rare nutrient.

For thousands of years people have been breeding crops such as wheat, maize and tomatoes. When doing so, farmers and breeders have been particularly concerned with increasing crop yields. However, targeted breeding has resulted in the loss of other useful traits and genetic diversity, and modern cultivated plants are often more susceptible to disease and have a reduced vitamin and nutrient content. The problem: Characteristics that are determined by the interplay of numerous genes cannot be restored by classical breeding.

The summer of 2018 was unique in many ways. Some aspects, however, were less pleasant than others: several regions of Germany saw losses in arable crops of up to 50%. Given climate change and global warming, such weather extremes will most likely increase even further in the future. In order to secure food sources, it is therefore paramount that agriculture adapts to climate change. This includes new strategies for agronomic management and breeding of more heat- and drought-tolerant crops.

Laughing gas, also known as nitrous oxide or N₂O, damages the ozone layer and belongs to the so-called greenhouse gases. Six percent of man-made global warming is attributed to this gas. And most of the global N₂O emissions are caused by livestock farming. However, an interdisciplinary research group from the University of Applied Sciences Bingen and the Heidelberg University now reports that plants also emit substantial amounts of this gas and therefore share a previously underestimated amount of the global nitrous oxide emissions.

Evonik has been committed to the balanced and healthy feeding of poultry for years. The Essen-based specialty chemicals company is now expanding its investment in precision livestock farming and in particular automated poultry production by investing in the Chesterfield-based British start-up OPTIfarm.

In July of this year, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) ruled that organisms obtained by using new techniques of directed mutagenesis, including those known as ‘gene editing techniques’ such as CRISPR-Cas, are genetically modified organisms (GMOs). As GMOs, they are subject to the corresponding legislation, the so-called GMO-Directive.

Rice is one of the most important crops in the world. More than half of the world's population feeds on it. Although there are many rice varieties, not every plant can withstand climate change. Especially in Asia, where cereal grains have always been a staple food, flooding is increasingly causing crop losses and threatening the livelihood of rice farmers. This is where the work of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) comes in.

In early December, the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) will take place in Katowice, Poland. In the Paris Climate Accord three years ago, the participating states agreed to limit global warming to well below two degrees Celsius. To achieve this goal, almost all sectors of the economy must rethink and establish new, sustainable and environmentally friendly processes. Now, the participants of the COP24 meeting in Poland will discuss the measures taken as well as their progress.

Plants have many enemies and predators against which they have to defend themselves. Therefore, they have developed defense mechanisms against many different types of attack. However, it would bind far too many resources if all these mechanisms were permanently active. Ecologists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the University of Bern have now investigated such a case of resource management in maize, wheat and other plant species.

Jasmine plants are known and loved for their bright white flowers and their fresh scent. This fragrance is based on the phytohormone jasmonic acid. The plant hormone bears its name because it was first discovered in the jasmine plant, but is also produced by other plants when they are eaten by insects or injured mechanically. The acid then causes a defensive reaction to protect the plant. Some species even transmit this acid signal via the air, in order to warn neighbouring plants.