Agriculture and forestry

Wood is a diverse raw material. It is used as a building material and fuel, for furniture construction, but also for the production of biofuel and sustainable chemicals. But climate change is putting forests under increasing pressure as a source of raw materials. Coniferous woods such as spruce in particular have suffered from drought and heat in recent years, which has severely decimated the tree population in some regions of Germany. Such supply bottlenecks are a concern for the wood processing industry.

The genetic engineering ruling of the European Court of Justice in the summer of 2018 has political repercussions: the European Council, the EU's leading political body, has asked the EU Commission to clarify how "novel genomic techniques" are to be legally classified and regulated in the future. The results of this study are to be presented by April 2021 - including proposals and an impact assessment.

Peppermint, lemon balm, wolf’s bane or chamomile are popular medicinal plants. They are used to soothe the symptoms of diseases in teas, but also in pharmaceuticals. But their cultivation is difficult. Even the smallest contamination by weeds can impair the effect of the medicinal plants. In the joint project Optimech, a team led by the University of Bonn is now investigating how medicinal plants can be cultivated in a way that is as soil-friendly as possible without having to use herbicides.

There are many environmental factors like drought and overfertilization that put plants under stress. In such cases, a complex signalling cascade is triggered inside the plant. This stress management apparatus works the same for all land plants - in moss just as in rye. An international research team led by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in which the University of Göttingen participated, wanted to know exactly how stress management works. The scientists therefore focused on a specific gene for the receptor in this signalling cascade.

The industry is relying more and more on natural substances and, with this, satisfying consumer demand for more biobased and sustainably produced products. Plant-based products and ingredients are particularly in demand in the cosmetics industry. Through a new strategic partnership with the French company Plant Advanced Technologies (PAT), the Swiss chemical group Clariant intends to expand its involvement in this business field.

All organisms that have been genetically modified fall under the regulations for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the European Union, according to the ruling of the European Court of Justice in 2018. This sounds plausible at first glance, but it is not that simple, as the Max Planck Society has already pointed out.

A fragrance wafts over the sweet potato field. What for us smells like a herbal balm is an alarm bell for the tuber plant, as researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (MPI) have now discovered. In the "Scientific Reports" of the Nature group, the team reports on the function of this variety-specific defense mechanism.

Red, pink, pink or white: the poinsettia is the most popular indoor plant in Germany second only to the orchid, even though Euphorbia pulcherrima is mainly used for Christmas decorations in this country. According to the marketing initiative of the European poinsettia breeders, Stars for Europe, around 32 million specimens are sold in Germany every year. More than 700 plant nurseries produce poinsettias in this country.

The predators of crop plants, such as the corn borer, are a nuisance for farmers. Where the larvae are at work, hardly a leaf remains. Usually, only pesticides help to control the pest. In the EU project OLEFINE, a European research association, which includes the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP in Stuttgart, hopes to find a sustainable alternative to solve the problem.

Every year, 120 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) are released worldwide through the so-called soil and vegetation respiration. Plants simultaneously bind about 123 gigatons of CO₂. However, this near-balance is disturbed by the burning of fossil fuels - with serious consequences for the climate. Researchers around the world are therefore looking for ways to curb the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.