Agriculture sciences

Studies have shown that insecticides from the neonicotinoid group are responsible for bee mortality. Three out of five such preparations are therefore banned in the European Union for use in the field - and rightly so, as an international study involving the University of Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) has now shown. However, the insecticide clothianidin does not impact honeybees as much as wild bees such as bumble bees.

Balmy summer nights and hot days? What vacationers love, potatoe farmers fear. At 29 degrees Celsius during the day or 27 degrees Celsius at night, potato yields plummet. The nightshade plant reacts sensitively to heat and stops tuber formation if temperatures are too high. The highest yields can be gained at 21 degrees Celsius during the day and 18 degrees Celsius at night. In times of climate change, this could become a problem. But now, scientists have discovered the potato's thermostat and managed to switch it off.

While the Blue Lupin is celebrating its comeback, the Yellow Lupin has almost disappeared from the fields in this country. The reason: the fungal disease anthracnosis brought the cultivation of Lupinus luteus to a standstill in the early 1990s. "The fungus attacks the plant's vascular vessels and thus interrupts the supply of nutrients. The plant dies, which can lead to total crop failure," explains Brigitte Ruge-Wehling from the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI).

The demand for macroalgae is growing worldwide: aquatic plants are cultivated as food and animal feed, but are also used for the production of cosmetics, dietary supplements or as additives in animal feed because of their bioactive ingredients. Algae breeding is particularly widespread in China, where the alga Laminaria is of particular importance.

Parsley is one of the most popular culinary herbs. It is rich in essential oils and vitamin C and is ideally suited for refining salads and savoury dishes. But the herbaceous plant is currently causing gardeners problems: it will not grow. Plant virologists from the Leibniz Institute DSMZ - German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH in Braunschweig - have now found the cause.

Nano-carriers that are loaded with active substances and release these straight to the diseased cells are already in use in cancer medicine. Now this "magic bullet" could soon also cure plant diseases. A team led by Frederik Wurm from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI) has been working for several years on establishing this treatment method for diseased vines.

Chemical herbicides have long been the panacea against unloved plants in the field. However, the use of pesticides such as glyphosate has long been controversial and the consequences for the environment - especially biodiversity - are alarming. In addition to new resistant plant varieties, researchers are therefore working on new technologies to counteract the trend with environmentally friendly methods.

The varroa mite is the greatest threat to the western bee (Apis mellifera). The tiny parasite Varroa destructor feeds on its body fluid and attacks larvae in the hive, damaging its offspring and causing entire hives to die. "After about 18 months after the first infection, a hive is dead if nothing is done about it," says Dr. Stanislav Balouchev of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research. Together with Katharina Landfester, the researcher hopes to use smart technology to protect bees from this scourge.

Plant pests and infectious diseases destroy large parts of agricultural harvests every year. The losses would be even greater if there were no chemical-synthetic pesticides. But they also have their downsides: “Too high a dosage can lead to contamination of the groundwater and deterioration in soil fertility," explains Frank Ewert, Scientific Director of the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF).